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UNIVERSITY  OF  MASSACHUSETTS 
LIBRARY 

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Date  Due 


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AN 


HISTORICAL    MEMOIR 


OF  THE    COLONY   OV 


NEW    PLYMOUTH, 


FROM    THE    FLIGHT    OF    THE    PILGRIMS    L^TO    HOLLAI^D    IX 

THE  YEAR  1608,  TO  THE    UNION    OF  THAT   COLONY 

"WITH  MASSACHUSETTS   IN   1692. 


BY    FRANCIS    BAYLIES. 


WITH  SOME  CORRECTIONS,  ADDITIONS,  AND  A 
COPIOUS  INDEX, 

BY    SAMUEL    G.    DRAKE. 


VOLUME  I. 

CONTAINING  PARTS  ONE  AND  TWO. 


BOSTON: 

WIGGIN   &   LUNT,    13  SCHOOL  STREET. 

186  6. 


C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S 


VOLUME    I. 

Part  I. — Preface,       ......        Pages  i.  to  xii. 

From   the   time    of   Henry   VIII.    to  the    end  of 

twenty  years  from  the  Landing  at  Plymouth,      .  1  to  321 

Part  II. — From  1641  to  the   commencement   of  the 

War  with  King-  Philip, 1  to  286 


NOTE   BY  THE   EDITOR. 
In  order  to  equalize  the   size  of  the  volumes   as  far  as 
possible,  all   the  Editor's   additions   have  been  formed  into  a 
Fifth  Part,  and  placed  at  the  end  of  the  work. 


PREFACE 


Some  of  the  towns  which  were  once  included  within  the 
ancient  colony  of  New  Plymouth,  contain  at  the  present  day  a 
population  more  numerous  than  the  whole  population  of  that 
colony  at  any  time  during  the  first  twenty  years  of  its  existence.— 
But  no  small  commonwealth,  not  even  a  Greek  republic,  ever 
afforded  to  history  in  so  short  a  period,  so  many  materials  alike 
interesting  and  instructive. 

In  the  earliest  period,  the  colonists  of  Plymouth  are  to  be 
considered  rather  as  a  voluntary  association  of  independent 
individuals,  than  as  subjects  of  the  crown  of  England  receiving 
protection,  and  yielding  allegiance. 

Their  history  may  properly  be  divided  into  four  periods. 
During  the  first  they  enacted  laws,  entered  into  treaties,  made 
war  and  peace,   and  exercised  all  the  powers  of  sovereignty 
almost  escaping  the  notice  of  the  English  government.— They 
were  alone  in  a  wide  wilderness,  and  they  assumed  sovereign 
power  from  necessity  rather  than  choice  :— this  period  is  full  of 
events:  —  difficulties  with  the  natives  ;  — domestic  factions;  — 
religious  quarrels  ;  —  repeated  attempts  to  obtain  a  royal  charter, 
and  a  continued  effort  to  save  themselves  from  the  desolations  of 
wai-,  and  the  sufferings  of  famine. 


IV  PREFACE. 


At  this  period  trifling  incidents  assume  a  character  of  impor- 
tance far  transcending  their  intrinsic  interest,  inasmuch  as  they 
serve  to  indicate  that  active  and  energetic  spirit,  that  patient 
fortitude,  that  stern  yet  submissive  religion,  which  taught  the 
pilgrims  to  endure  and  to  hope,  and  while  they  relied  on  divine 
protection,  not  to  neglect  the  '  human  means.' 

So  full  of  dangers  was  this  period,  that  it  was  only  by  the 
consummate  prudence  of  Bradford,  the  matchless  valor  of 
Standish,  and  the  incessant  enterprise  of  Winslow,  that  the  colony 
was  saved  from  destruction. 

The  submissive  piety  of  Brewster,  indeed,  produced  a  moral 
effect  as  important  in  its  consequences,  as  the  active  virtues  of 
the  others. 

These  were  the  men  who  produced  a  greater  revolution  in  the 
world  than  Columbus.  He  in  seeking  for  India  discoverejl 
America.— They  in  pursuit  of  religious  freedom  established  civU 
liberty,  and  meaning  only  to  found  a  church,  gave  birth  to  a  nation, 
and  in  settling  a  town  commenced  an  empire. 

The  colonists  after  surmounting  the  earliest  difficulties,  sup- 
pressing the  faction  of  Oldham  and  Lyford,  and  quieting  the 
natives  by  exciting  their  fears,  and  winning  their  affections,  under- 
took, in  1636,  to  establish  a  criminal  codej  to  define  and  limit 
the  power  and  authority  of  their  rulers,  and  to  ascertain  and 
declare  the  extent  of  their  own  rights  and  privileges  by  law. 

In  1639,  a  change  was  effected  in  the  government  which  at 
the  time  scarcely  attracted  notice,  it  being  considered  as  an  affair 
of  convenience  only  j  and  yet  it  substituted  a  representative  for 
an  actual  democracy,  by  vesting  in  the  deputies  of  seven  towns 
the  power  which  had  been  previously  exercised  by  the  whole 
people  :~the  extension  of  the  settlements  virtually  prevented 


PREFACE.  V 

them  from  exercising  their  legislative  rights  in  person,  and  to 
distribute  legislative  power  in  fair  and  equal  proportions  it  became 
necessary  to  delegate  it. 

Having,  under  the  patent  of  1629,  obtained  (as  they  supposed) 
a  title  to  the  soil  comprised  within  their  limits,  the  colonists  pro- 
ceeded as  their  increasing  population  required,  to  occupy  vacant 
lands,  and  to  extinguish  the  Indian  tide  to  others  by  mutual 
agreement,  and  by  the  payment  of  an  equivalent. 

The  surrender  of  the  patent  (which  had  been  taken  in  the 
name  of  Governor  Bradford)  to  the  whole  company,  and  the 
issuing  of  the  charters  to  the  several  towns  in  the  colony  in  1640, 
terminates  the  first  period  of  this  history. 

Froni  1641  to  1675,  a  period  of  more  than  thirtyfour  years, 
the  history  of  the  colony  (with  one  exception)  presents  but  few 
momentous  events.  During  this  second  period,  a  profound 
peace  was  maintained  with  the  natives.  English  settlements 
incorporated  as  towns  were  extended  in  every  direction,  and 
the  territory  was  nearly  covered  by  English  grants.  There  were 
no  domestic  feuds  or  ecclesiastical  controversies.  Sectarians  it  is 
true  occasionally  disturbed  the  tranquillity  of  the  inhabitants  of 
this  little  commonwealth  j  but  persecution  with  them  assumed  its 
mildest  form,  and  their  annals  have  escaped  that  deep  and  indeli- 
ble stain  of  blood,  which  pollutes  the  pages  of  the  early  history 
of  their  sterner  and  more  intolerant  brethren  of  Massachusetts.— 
They  were  somewhat  apprehensive  of  the  commissioners  who 
were  sent  out  by  King  Charles  II.  to  examine  the  condition  of  the 
colonies,  and  to  correct  abuses,  but  in  Plymouth  there  were  no 
complaints,  because  there  were  no  wrongs.  In  1643  a  union  or 
confederation  was  effected  between  the  colonies  of  Plymouth, 
Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  New   Haven,  to  which  at  first 


Vi  PREFACE. 

Saybrook,  then  a  separate  and  independent  settlement  on  Con- 
necticut river  and  which  had  been  granted  to  Lord  Say  and  Sele, 
Lord  Brook,  and  Sir  Richard  SaltonstaU,  was  admitted  as  a 
party,  but  which  soon  after  lost  its  distinctive  political  character 
by  a  union  with  Connecticut.  The  principal  objects  of  this  con- 
federation were  to  secure  a  harmonious  cooperation  in  religious 
affairs  ; — to  adopt  means  for  the  surrender  of  servants,  criminals, 
and  fugitives  from  justice,  escaping  from  one  jurisdiction  into 
another  :  by  establishing  an  alliance  offensive  and  defensive  to 
provide  for  the  common  defence  in  war,  for  which  soldiers  were 
to  be  raised  and  money  assessed  in  ascertained  proportions,  and 
for  the  prevention  of  wars,  no  colony  was  to  wage  one  individu- 
ally or  without  the  consent  of  six  out  of  the  eight  commissioners. 

The  spirit  of  enterprise  which  found  its  first  employment  in 
controversies  with  the  natives  took  another  direction,  and  in  the 
prosecution  of  commerce  found  the  real  source  of  prosperity  and 
wealth.  Frugal  and  prudent  from  necessity,  and  industrious  from 
habit,  the  colonists  continued  to  advance  by  sure  and  certain 
steps  in  their  career  of  successful  exertion,  until  the  breaking  out 
of  that  horrible  war  which  bears  the  name  of  its  author,  and  which 
terminates  the  second  and  commences  the  third  period  of  this 
history. 

Romantic  indeed  is  the  history  of  this  third  period,  full  of  inci- 
dent, exciting  events,  and  high  and  heroic  action.  The  war 
which  fills  this  period  of  colonial  history  was  a  contest  for  exis- 
tence.— It  was  the  death  struggle  between  the  white  and  the  red 
races,  and  the  fate  not  only  of  Plymouth  but  of  all  New  England 
was  involved  in  the  issue.  Philip,  the  Tecumseh  of  his  age,  was  . 
the  chief  of  a  confederacy  which  embraced  nearly  all  the  tribes 
of  New  Endand  ;  but  his  own  residence  and  that  of  his  native 


PREFACE.  Yii 

tribe  was  within  the  territorial  jurisdiction  of  Plymouth,  and  there- 
fore much  of  the  danger  and  much  of  the  suffering  which  were 
occasioned  by  the  war,  fell  upon  that  colony. —  The  whole  popula- 
tion were  transformed  into  soldiers. —  Every  settlement  contained 
garrisoned  houses,  and  the  martial  spirit  was  kindled  even  in 
the  bosoms  of  the  women  and  children.  The  success  of  the 
English  gave  to  them  the  disposal  of  the  remaining  lands  of  tlie 
Indians.  They  permitted  a  few  miserable  natives  to  hold  some 
narrow  possessions  on  sufferance,  (an  evidence  of  their  conquest 
and  debasement,)  within  that  ample  domain,  once  the  heritage  of 
their  ancestors.  Their  pumbers  lessened. — They  mingled  with 
the  blacks:  —  their  distinctive  character  was  lost,  and  the  only 
physical  evidences  which  now  remain  of  a  '  previous  people,' 
are  their  uncoffined  skeletons,  which  are  occasionally  exhumed, 
as  though  fate  had  determined  to  deny  even  to  their  bones,  a 
resting  place  in  that  soil  over  which  they  once  had  roamed,  tlie 
proud  and  solitary  lords  of  the  primeval  forest. 

The  dominion  of  the  colony  was  now  firmly  established,  and  the 
colonists  were  relieved  from  all  apprehensions  of  Indian  hostility, 
and  the  fourth  period  in  their  history  commences. 

During  that  period  they  in  common  with  the  other  colonies  of 
New  England,  suffered  under  the  oppression  of  Sir  Edmund 
Andross,  and  rejoiced  in  his  overthrow.  The  revolution  of  1688, 
restored  tliem  to  independence.  After  the  accession  of  William 
and  Mary  to  the  throne  of  Great  Britain,  but  little  regard  was 
manifested  for  their  peculiar  rights,  and  as  a  measure  of  political 
convenience  this  colony  was  annexed  to  the  younger  but  more 
powerful  sister  colony  of  Massachusetts  in  1692,  having  existed 
as  an  independent  government  for  a  period  of  seventyone  years. 


viii  PREFACE. 

The  people  of  Plymouth  submitted  to  this  arrangement  with 
reluctance,  but  as  the  evil  was  unavoidable,  they  bore  the  loss  of 
their  independence  with  equanimity,  and  deported  themselves  as 
loyal  subjects  of  the  crown,  and  as  good  citizens  of  the  Province, 
and  as  the  laws,  religion,  customs,  and  principles  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts' colonists  were  nearly  similar  to  their  own,  they  soon 
amalgamated  and  became  one  people. 

It  would  be  presumptuous  perhaps  to  call  this  humble  work 
a  history :  its  relations  are  so  minute,  and  to  many  may  appear 
so  trifling,  that  the  common  usage  of  the  world  would  require 
that  it  should  assume  no  higher  name  than  that  of  memoir, 
yet  a  narrative  of  the  earliest  settlement  of  Rome  or  England  as 
circumstantial,  as  minute,  and  as  accurate  as  that  which  now 
exists  respecting  the  settlement  of  New  Plymouth,  would  be 
prized  by  scholars  and  antiquarians  as  the  most  precious  of  all 
the  treasures  of  history.  Events  which  are  obscured  by  the 
duskiness  of  antiquity  excite  an  indescribable,  peculiar,  romantic, 
and  mysterious  interest,  and  could  the  very  fieljj  be  now  pointed  out 
through  which  a  Roman  consul  had  guided  the  plough  : — could 
the  very  spot  be  ascertained  where  a  Dictator  had  entered  the 
eternal  city  m  all  the  honors  of  a  lawful  triumph: — could  the 
wild,  dark  haunts  of  the  Druids  be  opened  to  the  light,  or  the  places 
identified  where  the  soil  of  England  had  been  pressed  by  the  feet 
of  Julius  Cesar,  or  of  Hengist  and  Horsa,  or  of  William  the 
Conqueror,  the  enthusiasm  of  the  age  would  consecrate  such 
ground,  and  no  divine  mformation  would  be  required  to  proclaim 
its  holiness. 

An  attempt  to  arrange  events  which  now  are  scattered  through 
various  books,  although  it  may  at  best  be  considered  but  an 
effort  at  compilation,  is  entitled  as  the  author  apprehends  to  some 


PREFACE.  ix 

favor. — Time  has  already  begun  to  throw  his  shadows  over  the 
earlier  part  of  American  history,  and  before  the  light  fades  entirely 
away,  the  slightest  effort  to  arrest  the  fall  of  that  dark  curtain, 
which  like  the  funeral  pall  covers  all  that  have  lived,  and  to  pre- 
sent men  and  things  as  they  actually  were  without  leaving  the 
future  historian  like  the  historian  of  antiquity,  to  grope  his  uncer- 
tain way  by  the  dim  and  hazy  light  of  an  age  fabulous,  and 
heroic,  is  entitled  not  only  to  favor  but  to  indulgence. 

Fortunately  an  account  of  the  earlier  proceedings  of  the  Ply- 
mouth colonists  exists  in  the  relations. of  Mourt  and  Edward  Win- 
slow  :  to  these  relations  the  annals  of  Prince  are  an  invaluable 
appendage  as  they  contain  the  only  portion  of  the  history  written 
by  Governor  Bradford  which  terminated  in  1646,  and  which 
contained  a  full,  accurate,  and  minute  account  of  all  the  transac- 
tions of  the  colony  to  that  period. — This  history  is  lost,  and  no 
trace  of  it  remains  except  in  these  annals,  which  are  only 
extended  to  the  beginning  of  August,  1633,  although  it  was  tlie 
intention  of  the  author  to  have  brought  them  down  to  1730. 
Both  Winslow  and  Bradford  were  personally  concerned  in  all  the 
transactions  which  tliey  related,  and  as  their  veracity  was  unim- 
peachable, their  writings  are  entitled  to  unlimited  credit. 

The  work  of  Secretary  Morton  called  the  New  England 
Memorial,  contains  much  valuable  information,  although  it  has 
not  the  minuteness  of  detail  which  characterises  the  works  of  the 
others.  It  is  rather  like  an  official  record  interspersed  with 
accounts  of  remarkable  events,  and  special  interpositions  of 
Providence.  Many  interesting  facts  have  been  collected  from  the 
notes  and  appendix  in  the  last  edition  of  this  work  by  the  Hon. 
John  Davis. 


X  PREFACE. 

Some  interesting  matter  touching  the  history  of  this  colony  is 
found  in  Winthrop's  Journal,  particularly  in  the  notes  to  the  last 
Edition  by  the  Hon.  James  Savage,  and  in  Mather's  Magnalia,  and 
Hubbard's  history,  as  well  as  in  the  narrative  which  the  latter  has 
written  of  the  Indian  wars. 

Some  valuable  information  has  been  gleaned  from  the  collec- 
tions of  the  Historical  Society  of  Massachusetts,  especially  from 
such  as  relate  totlie  setdement  of  the  ancient  Towns  in  the  Colo- 
ny, and  their  ecclesiastical  and  local  history. 

A  homely  narrative  of  the  transactions  in  which  Colonel 
Church  was  personally  engaged  during  Philip's  war,  of  which 
he  was  the  hero,,  has  been  consulted. — This  narrative  was 
written  by  a  son  of  Church,  from  the  notes  and  information  of  the 
father,  and  under  his  inspection,  and  was  published  during  his 
life.     It  may  therefore  be  relied  on  for  its  accuracy. 

Hutchinson's  History  of  Massachusetts,  Trumbull's  History  of 
Connecticut,  and  the  second  volume  of  Belknap's  Biography, 
have  been  examined,  —  particularly  the  last,  in  which  the  author 
has  condensed  in  a  clear,  perspicuous  and  elegant  manner,  almost 
all  the  earlier  history  of  the  Colony  from  Mourt,  Winslow,  Prince 
and  Morton. 

Much  information  as  to  the  laws  has  been  gained  from  the 
ancient  manuscript  records. 

With  a  view  to  the  history  of  Philip's  war,  three  very  scarce 
tracts  which  were  all  published  in  London,  in  1675  and  1676, 
and  which  were  once  in  the  library  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  and 
were  by  him  presented  to  an  American  gentleman,  have  been 
examined.  The  first  is  entided  '  The  Present  State  of  New 
England  with  respect  to  the  Indian  War. — Wherein  is  an  account 
of  the  true  reason  thereof,  (as  far  as  can  be  judged  by  men.) 


PREFACE,  JX 

Together  with  the  most  remarkable  passages  that  have  happened 
from  the  20th  of  June,  till  the  10th  of  November,  1675. 
Faithfully  composed  by  a  merchant  of  Boston,  and  communicated 
to  his  friend  in  London.'  * 

This  work  is  full  of  errors,  and  it  cannot  be  trusted  except 
where  the  Author  was  an  eye-witness  to  what  he  relates.  Sau- 
saman  is  said  to  have  been  sent  by  the  Governor  of  Plymouth  to 
convert  Philip  to  Christianity,  and  that  for  this  he  was  seized  and 
sent  to  Plymouth  by  Philip,  and  while  on  his  way  there  exhorted 
his  guard  to  receive  the  gospel,  which  so  much  incensed  them  that 
they  put  him  to  death,  and  that  it  was  not  until  two  or  three  months 
after  his  death  that  his  body  was  taken  from  its  grave  !  Massa- 
soiet  is  called  the  grandfather  of  Philip  !  In  this  history  is  con- 
tained the  account  of  the  exploits  of  Cornellis  the  Dutch  pirate, 
which  Hutchinson  has  quoted. 

*  The  second  tract  is  entitled  "  A  new  and  further  Narrative  of 
the  State  of  New-England  being  a  continued  Account  of  the 
Bloody  Indian  War  from  March  till  August,  1676,  Giving  a  per- 
fect relation  of  the  several  devastations,  engagements,  and  trans- 
actions there ;  as  also  the  great  successes,  lately  obtained  against 
the  Barbarous  Indians,  the  reducing  of  King  Philip,  and  the  kill- 
ing of  one  of  the  Queens,  he,  together  with  a  Catalogue  of  the 
losses  in  the  whole,  sustained  on  either  side,  since  the  said  War 
began  as  near  as  can  be  collected. 'f 

This  account  is  far  more  correct  than  the  first.  It  generally 
coincides  with  the  other  histories,  and  some  facts  not  mentioned  in 

**  Printed  for  Dorman  Newman,  at  the  King's  Arms  in  Poultry,  and  at  the 
Ship  and  anchor,  at  the  Bridge-foot,  on  Southwark  side  1675. 

t  London  printed  by  F.  B.  for  Dorman  Newman,  at  the  King's  Arms  in  the 
Poultry,  1676. 


xii  PREFACE. 

those  are  disclosed  which  bear  strong  marks  of  authenticity.  It 
was  written  July  22,  1676,  and  appears  to  have  been  preceded 
by  two   other  letters. 

The  third  is  entitled '  A  true  Account,  of  the  most  considerable 
Occurrences  that  have  hapned  in  the  Warre  between  the  English 
and  Indians  in  New-England,  from  the  fifth  of  May,  1676  ;  to  the 
fourth  of  August  last ;  as  also  the  successes,  it  hath  pleased  God  to 
give  the  English  against  them,  as  it  hath  been  communicated  by 
letters  to  a  friend  in  London.  The  most  exact  account  yet 
printed.'* 

This  short  account,  although  it  was  written  before  the  war  had 
terminated,  and  when  there  were  many  crude  reports  in  circula- 
tion, is  very  accurate,  and  agrees  in  most  respects  with  the  subse- 
quent histories. 

All  these  tracts  appear  to  have  been  written  in  the  form  of  let- 
ters by  residents  in  Boston  to  their  friends  in  London. 

From  these  sources  this  Memoir  has  been  compiled,  its  merit 
is  not  in  its  novelty,  as  nothing  now  can  be  gleaned  from  tradition. 
It  is  a  collection  of  historical  facts  which  are  scattered  through 
many  works,  and  is  the  first  attempt  to  embody  a  connected  his- 
tory of  the  most  ancient  colony  in  New-England. 

*  London,  printed  for  Benjamin  Billingsle  y,  at  the  Printing  Preiss  in  Corn- 
hill,  1676. 


HISTORICAL  MEMOIR 


OP 


PLYMOUTH    COLONY 


CHAPTER  I. 


Quarrel  between  King  Henry  VIII.  and  the  Pope. — Protestant  Schism. — Ed- 
ward VI.  Favors  the  Protestants. — Persecution  of  the  Protestants  in  the 
Reign  of  Queen  Mary. — Persecution  of  the  Puritans  in  the  Reign  of  Queen 
Elizabeth. — Robert  Brown,  Richard  Clifton,  and  John  Robinson,  gather  a 
Congregation  amongst  the  People  of  Lincoln,  Nottingham,  and  Yorkshire. 

When  Henry  VIII.  threw  off  the  yoke  of  the  Roman 
Church,  he  retained  many  of  its  tenets.  Although  the 
principles  of  Wickliffe,  the  earliestof  the  English  reform- 
ers, had  made  some  progress  in  some  of  the  preceding 
reigns,  yet  at  the  commencement  of  his,  the  Protestants, 
were  not  known  as  a  sect.  The  passions  of  the  monarch 
produced  a  more  thorough  revolution  in  England,  than 
was  effected  on  the  continent  by  the  zeal  and  learning  of 
the  early  reformers,  instructed  and  animated  as  they  were 
by  the  gigantic  intellects  and  matchless  courage  of  Luther 
and  of  Calvin.  Frustrated  in  a  favorite  project  in  which 
his  heart  was  concerned,  the  rage  of  the  monarch  was  in- 
1 


2  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

flamed  to  an  implacable  degree  against  the  Pope.  Reso- 
lute, fearless,  and  revengeful,  none  but  one  like  him  could 
have  overthrown  that  mighty  fabric  of  ecclesiastical  power, 
which  was  engrafted  on  all  the  national  institutions  of  Eu- 
rope, and  which  it  had  been  the  work  of  centuries  to 
rear.  By  declaring  himself  the  supreme  head  of  the 
Church  of  England,  he  discovered  a  disposition  reckless 
of  consequences  and  daring  to  the  verge  of  desperation. 
This  revolution  was  not  caused  by  any  dislike  which  the 
king  entertained  to  the  creed,  or  the  ceremonies  of  the 
Church  of  Rome,  for  in  early  life  he  was  attached  to  its 
doctrines  with  all  the  zeal  and  fondness  of  an  enthusiast, 
and  the  title  of  '  Defender  of  the  Faith'  first  bestowed 
on  Henry  by  Leo  X.  for  his  zeal  and  orthodoxy  in  com- 
bating the  doctrines  of  the  heretic  Luther,  still  distin- 
guishes the  protestant  kings  of  England.  Many  of  the 
ceremonies  of  the  papal  church  were  preserved,  and  most 
of  its  articles  of  faith,  and  the  reformed  church  of  Eng- 
land still  maintained  in  its  form  of  worship  a  degree  of 
splendor  far  surpassing  that  of  the  simple  and  intellec- 
tual worship  of  the  followers  of  Calvin.  The  hierarchy 
was  retained,  the  people  still  continued  to  reverence  the 
arch-bishops,  the  bishops,  and  the  other  grades  of  prelates 
of  the  new  establishment;  but  the  Catholic  religion  had 
received  a  mortal  blow,  —  the  protestant  church  ac- 
knowledged no  earthly  head  but  the  King,  and  the  domin- 
ion which  the  Popes  had  maintained  over  the  feelings, 
opinions,  and  passions  of  the  people,  so  powerful  at  times 
as  to  overcome  their  principles  of  loyalty,  and  tl>eir  oaths 
of  allegiance  to  their  own  sovereigns,  was  completely  sub- 
verted. The  avarice  of  the  King  completed  the  work  which 
his  anger  commenced  ;  the  suppression  of  the  monastic 
establishments  established  his  power  on  a  firmer  basis,  and 
their  spoils  enriched  his  treasury  :  the  law  permitting  the 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  3 

clergy  to  marry,  and  the  general  diffusion  of  the  holy 
scriptures  amongst  the  people  completely  destroyed  the 
connexion,  political  and  ecclesiastical,  between  the  king- 
dom of  England  and  the  church  of  Rome  ;  and  while  the 
monarch  defied,  the  people  learned  to  despise  the  anger 
of  the  Pope. 

In  the  reign  of  Edward  VI,  the  son  and  successor  of 
Henry,  the  articles  of  faith  were  conformed  more  to  the 
doctrines  of  Calvin,  but  the  church  retained  its  magnifi- 
cent form  of  worship  :  the  higher  dignitaries  of  the 
establishment  represented  their  order  in  the  aristocratic 
branch  of  the  national  councils  and  mingled  on  equal 
terms  with  the  peers  of  the  realm,  although  Hooper,  a 
man  of  great  eloqueuce  and  learning,  even  in  that  reign, 
had  resolved  to  refuse  a  bishopric  rather  than  suffer  him- 
self to  be  clothed  in  an  episcopal  habit. 

The  bigotted  Mary  drove  into  exile  many  of  the  ablest 
and  most  learned  protestants,  and  the  sufferings  of  their 
brethren  who  remained,  and  maintained  their  faith  at  the 
stake,  and  obtained  the  crown  of  martyrdom  in  the  flames, 
excited  all  the  sympathy  of  the  protestants  on  the  conti- 
nent. The  exiles  were  received  with  hospitality  and  affec- 
tion by  the  Calvinistic  churches  of  Frankfort,  Geneva, 
Basil  and  Strasburgh.  A  church  was  gathered  at  Geneva, 
by  the  famous  William  Whittingham,  who  fled  from  the 
persecution  of  Mary,  and  abandoned  a  great  estate  in 
England,  —  which,  in  its  discipline,  government,  and 
form  of  worship,  is  said  to  have  varied  but  little  from  that 
of  the  congregational  churches  of  the  present  day. 
Suffering  under  the  persecutions  of  the  Catholics  and 
their  bloody  Queen,  the  exiles  imbibed  an  unconquer- 
able dislike  to  all  the  modes  of  worship  which  had  the 
slightest  resemblance  to  that  of  Rome.     After  the  death 


4  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

of  Mary  and  the  accession  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  they 
returned  home  inflamed  with  a  sense  of  their  wrongs, 
and  disgusted  with  the  ceremonies  of  the  English 
church,  reestablished  as  it  was  on  a  protestant  founda- 
tion, because  they  thought  those  ceremonies  savored  too 
much  of  the  superstition,  and  mummery,  and  idolatry 
of  Rome  —  ardently  attached  to  the  more  simple  mode 
cf  worship  which  they  had  seen,  and  practised  abroad,  and 
cherishing  the  deepest  veneration  for  the  doctrines  of  the 
people  with  whom  they  had  dwelt  during  their  exile.  The 
love  of  equality,  a  feeling  natural  to  the  human  mind,  was 
gratified  with  the  idea  that  as  in  the  kingdom  of  Heaven 
there  was  no  respect  for  persons,  and  as  the  disciples  and 
primitive  Christians  acknowledged  no  earthly  rank,  and 
only  adored  the  God  of  the  Heavens  and  the  Earth,  and 
reverenced  their  master  and  mediator,  as  his  son,  so 
on  earth  there  should  be  no  ecclesiastical  rank,  and  men 
should  be  esteemed  only  in  proportion  to  their  spiritual 
gifts  and  attainments.  Elizabeth  was  obliged  at  the  com- 
mencement of  her  reign  to  humor  these  notions.  A  large 
proportion  of  her  subjects  still  adhered  to  the  Catholic 
doctrines,  and  she  was  threatened  from  abroad  with  the 
hostility  of  the  Pope,  and  of  all  the  Catholic  Princes  of 
Europe,  and  many  of  her  ablest  and  most  faithful  servants 
had  embraced  the  doctrines  of  the  exiles  ;  but  the  Queen 
(having  established  herself  firmly  on  the  throne,  and  having 
overawed  all  her  foreign  enemies,  and  being  respected  as 
the  head  of  the  protestants  throughout  Europe,)  felt  secure 
from  all  danger  of  rebellion  : — fond  of  magnificence,  and 
having  the  power  under  the  laws  of  the  realm,  severely  to 
punish  non-conformists,  arbitrary  in  her  principles,  and 
stubborn  in  her  opinions,  she  soon  resorted  to  her  legal 
powers  to  punish  those  who  dared  to  think  for  themselves 
on  the  subject  of  religion,    and  the  Puritans,  a  name 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  5 

which  this  class  of  people  had  received  from  their  preten- 
sions to  superior  piety  in  religion  and  purity  of  conduct, 
were  persecuted  for  what  was  termed  error  in  opinion, —  the 
clergy  of  this  sect  were  deprived  of  their  benefices,  fined 
and  imprisoned,  and  some  were  even  put  to  death.  Al- 
though the  avowal  of  their  opinions  hazarded  their  safety, 
yet  persecution  inflamed  their  zeal,  and  strengthened  their 
inflexibility  ;  they  studied  the  scriptures  day  and  night, 
and  they  imagined  that  their  opinions  respecting  church 
government,  were  supported  by  the  authority  of  inspira- 
tion and  by  the  mandates  of  the  divine  Author  of  their 
religion.  They  discovered  no  external  marks  of  splendor 
in  the  primitive  christian  churches ;  the  gospel  was 
taught  from  the  mouths  of  the  poor,  and  the  lowly.  But 
the  christian  religion  as  felt  and  practised  in  the  days  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  shed  none  of  its  mild,  peaceful,  and 
charitable  influences  upon  the  hearts  of  men ; — sectarian 
zeal  smothered  the  zeal  for  gospel  truth,  and  religion  was 
only  another  name  for  party. — The  Puritans  possessed  as 
little  toleration  as  their  persecutors,  and  felt  no  pity  for  the 
Arian,  or  the  Anabaptist,  when  writhing  in  the  flames  for 
imputed  heresy.  Almost  every  religious  sect  has  had  its 
martyrs,  and  its  miracles,  its  infallible  creed,  its  persecu- 
tions, and  its  catalogue  of  damnable  heresies,  and  like  the  fa- 
bled sphynx  has  ever  been  ready  to  destroy  those  who  could 
not  explain  the  riddles,  into  which,  they  had  transformed 
the  plain  truths  of  the  gospel.  Elizabeth  a  princess  of 
uncommon  sagacity,  seemed  to  have  lost  it  all  on  the  sub- 
ject of  religion ; — hating  the  Catholics  on  one  hand,  and 
despising  the  Puritans  on  the  other,  she  would  herself  set 
up  the  standard  of  orthodoxy,  to  which  she  had  deter- 
mined that  all  should  conform.  At  her  instigation,  tlie 
two  houses  of  Parliament,  obsequious  to  her  will,  consented 
to  an  act  '  by  which  every  person  who  should  absent  him- 


6  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

self  from  church  during  a  month  was  subjected  to  fine  and 
imprisonment ;  and  if  after  conviction,  he  did  not  within 
three  months  renounce  his  erroneous  opinions,  and  conform 
to  the  laws,  he  was  obliged  to  abjure  the  realm  —  but  if 
he  either  refused  to  comply  with  this  condition,  or  return- 
ed from  banishment,  he  should  be  put  to  death  as  a  felon, 
without  the  benefit  of  clergy.'  This  tyrannical  and  perse- 
cuting law  was  followed  by  the  usual  consequences  of  such 
laws. 

All  who  had  favored  the  Puritans  were  then  induced  to 
believe,  that  if  in  their  distresses  they  deserted  them  it 
would  be  at  the  expense  of  honor,  and  at  the  risk  of 
infamy. 

From  an  apprehensioii  that  their  principles  might  be 
abandoned  through  fear,  their  consciences  became  sensitive. 
Deliberate  opinions  grew  out  of  doubtful  predilections, — 
and  wavering  inclinations.  Those  opinions  soon  became 
fixed  and  ruling  principles,  influencing  all  their  conduct, 
absorbing  all  their  attachments,  and  exciting  all  their 
enthusiasm.  The  moral  man  was  changed,  and  he  existed 
but  for  one  purpose. 

To  understand  the  principles  and  motives  of  human 
action,  it  would  be  well  to  revert  to  the  origin  and  pro- 
gress of  the  christian  religion.  After  the  Almighty  had 
ceased  to  manifest  his  power  by  miracles,  and  his  will  by 
inspiration,  —  after  giving  to  man  a  basis  for  his  faith,  in 
the  birth,  acts,  suflferings,  death  and  resurrection  of  his 
son,  and  the  miracles  of  the  apostles,  he  withdrew  his 
visible  glory  from  the  earth,  and  left  the  remainder  of  his 
designs  to  the  operation  of  human  reason  and  of  natural 
causes.  The  primitive  Christians  opened  the  prospect  of 
a  paradise  on  earth,  but  when  their  successors  had  won 
their  way  to  temporal  power,  and  had  grasped  with  eager 
hands  the  pillars  of  the  throne,  the  frailties  of  humanity 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  7 

mingled  with  devotion,  and  the  articles  of  faith  were  im- 
posed by  the  sword.  When  the  barbarians  who  subjected 
the  Roman  Empire  knelt  at  the  altar,  and  embraced  the 
cross,  their  rude  minds  unable  to  realize  the  pure  doc- 
trines of  him  '  whose  kingdom  was  not  of  this  world,' 
and  yet  reverencing  those  who  had  diverted  them  from 
the  senseless  worship  of  a  sabre,  or  the  bloody  worship  of 
Woden,  and  had  led  them  to  the  fountains  of  immortal 
life,  in  the  warmth  of  gratitude  and  devotion,  invested 
these  spiritual  teachers  with  temporal  power,  and  the 
bishops  became  princes;  —  hence  politics  were  blended 
with  religion,  hence  the  union  of  church  and  state.  The 
intrigues  of  the  statesman  suspended  the  devotion  of  the 
warrior,  and  the  votaries  of  the  gospel,  instead  of  seeking 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  sought  kingdoms  on  earth.  The 
study  of  the  scriptures  was  neglected  for  the  study  of 
politics,  the  clerical  character  was  slighted  —  priests  be- 
came statesmen  and  courtiers  and  candidates  for  civil  dis- 
tinctions, and  cardinals  often  guided  the  councils  of  the 
Italian  states,  of  Spain,  France,  Scotland,  and  England. 
The  Popes  pursued  their  career  of  ambition  and  aggran- 
dizement with  all  the  zeal  and  energy  of  temporal  mon- 
archs,  and  succeeded  in  establishing  a  despotism  over  the 
mind,  more  thorough  than  that  which  was  established  by 
their  republican  and  imperial  predecessors  over  the  liber- 
ties of  mankind.  The  prelates  of  the  reformed  religion 
enjoyed  some  portion  of  the  consideration,  respect,  and 
power,  which  had  attended  their  predecessors,  but  they 
were  unable  to  stay  the  spirit  of  reformation  in  its  pro- 
gress.— When  the  human  mind  is  released  from  the  re- 
straint of  ancient  and  long  settled  opinions,  and  its  accus- 
tomed habits  of  obedience,  it  is  apt  to  run  riot  with  num- 
berless vagaries  and  fantasies — with  new  and  crude  notions. 
In  the  breaking  up  of   the  great  deep,  many  novel  and 


8  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Strange  appearances  are  presented,  and  in  the  feverish  ex- 
citement of  the  time,  whatever  floats  on  the  surface, 
whether  worthless  or  valuable,  is  grasped  with  eager 
hands.  So  various  are  the  lights  in  which  the  subject  of 
religion  is  viewed  by  different  persons,  so  various  are  the 
modes  by  which  the  mind  is  brought  to  its  conclusions, 
and  so  many  arguments  may  be  drawn  from  the  holy  wri- 
tings to  favor  the  pretensions  of  different  sects,  that  it  is 
not  a  matter  of  wonder  that  the  christian  world  has  been 
divided  into  numberless  parties,  each  maintaining  with  all 
the  zeal  of  conviction  the  truth  of  the  system  embraced 
by  themselves.  Men  of  rank,  and  of  wealth,  fearful  that 
the  introduction  of  new  opinions  will  disturb  the  tranquil- 
lity of  society,  always  resist  innovations,  and  always  sus- 
tain the  established  institutions  both  in  church  and  state  : 
hence  it  is,  that  novel  notions  either  in  religion  or  politics 
generally  germinate  in  the  humbler  ranks  of  society,  and 
the  energy  and  perseverance  with  which  they  are  pursued, 
are  in  the  ratio  of  the  zeal  with  which  they  are  embraced. 
Amongst  the  most  zealous  of  the  Puritans  was  a  preach- 
er of  the  name  of  Robert  Brown,  a  man  of  bold  and 
ready  eloquence,  and  of  showy  and  popular  talents  ;  he 
was  the  first  who  taught  the  people  the  perfect  equality 
of  all  those  who  joined  the  church  of  Christ,  and  he  refu- 
sed to  acknowledge  any  authority  in  church  government, — 
maintaining  the  new  and  daring  doctrine,  that  his  church 
was  amenable  to  none,  and  that  any  one  might  be  conse- 
crated and  set  apart  for  the  priesthood  by  the  election  of 
the  brethren  without  any  sanction  from  an  archbishop, 
bishbp,  or  synod,  or  any  authority  whatever  out  of  the 
church  itself,  and  that  no  form  was  necessary  for  the  con- 
secration of  a  pastor  but  the  imposition  of  hands.  Al- 
though this  daring  innovator  afterwards  abandoned  his 
principles,  conformed  to  the  established  religion,  and  re- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  9 

ceived  a  benefice,  yet  his  early  opinions  favoring  the  popu- 
lar notions  of  equality  in  church  government,  took  deep 
root  amongst  the  humbler  descriptions  of  the  people,  many 
of  whom,  living  on  the  confines  of  Lincoln,  Nottingham, 
and  Yorkshire,  were  gathered  into  a  congregation  by  the 
influence  and  preaching  of  Richard  Clifton  and  John 
Robinson,  about  the  year  1G02  :  they  entered  into  a  sol- 
emn covenant,  devoting  themselves  to  the  service  of  God, 
and  to  the  aid  and  comfort  of  each  other,  and  endeavor- 
ed to  conform  to  the  practice  and  the  doctrines  of  the 
primitive  church  of  Christ;  they  were  more  rigid  in  their 
practice  than  the  other  Puritans,  and  totally  separated 
themselves  from  the  established  church  j  they  were  popu- 
larly known  at  first  by  the  name  of  Brownists,  a  name 
derived  from  their  founder,  but  which  they  always  dis- 
claimed as  a  distinctive  appellation. 


(       10       ) 


CHAPTER  II. 

Persecution  of  the  Puritans  in  the  Reign  of  James  I. — Clifton  and  Robinson's 
Congregation  escape  into  Holland. — Are  established  at  Leyden. — Doctrines 
maintained  by  Robinson's  church. 

When  James  I.  came  to  the  throne  of  England,  Ban- 
croft was  the  Arch-Bishop  of  Canterbury  ;  the  king  was 
influenced  by  his  counsels,  and  the  Puritans  experienced 
all  the  terrors  of  persecution  ;  some  were  imprisoned,  and 
all  were  harrassed  by  oppressive  laws  ;  many  were  com- 
pelled to  abandon  their  occupations,  and  to  confine  them- 
selves to  their  houses.  . 

Wearied  at  last  with  these  continual  persecutions, 
Robinson's  church  determined  to  abandon  their  country, 
and  to  seek  some  other  in  which  they  might  enjoy  their 
worship,  and  their  opinions  unmolested.  After  some 
abortive  attempts  to  leave  England,  in  which  they  were 
detected,  and  for  which  they  suffered  severely,  they  suc- 
ceeded in  the  spring  of  1608  in  hiring  a  Dutch  vessel  to 
transport  them  to  Holland  :  —  the  sagacity  of  therulers  of 
this  commercial  Republic  had  made  them  sensible  of  the 
advantages  of  universal  toleration,  at  a  time  when  that 
policy  was  rejected  by  the  whole  christian  world. 

A  part  of  Robinson's  society  having  embarked,  the 
captain  of  the  ship  was  intimidated  by  the  appearance  of 
an  armed  force  on  the  coast,  and  put  to  sea  without  waiting 
for  the  remainder,  and   after  a  voyage  of  fourteen  days 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLO?JY.  j  j 

arrived  at  Amsterdam.  The  wives  and  families  of  those 
who  had  embarked,  soon  joined  them,  and  the  remainder 
of  Robinson's  church  went  over  in  the  summer  of  1608. 
They  were  joined  in  the  same  year  by  their  venerated 
pastor.  The  aged  Clifton  died  previous  to  their  embarca- 
tion. 

A  congregation  of  English  puritans  under  the  care  of 
John  Smith,  had  been  gathered  at  Amsterdam  previous  to 
the  arrival  of  Robinson,  but  some  dissensions  happening 
amongst  them  the  church  was  dissolved.  Robinson,  fear- 
ful of  the  effects  which  might  follow  from  such  an  example, 
persuaded  his  church  to  remove  to  Leyden,  which  they 
did  after  remaining  a  year  at  Amsterdam. 

At  Leyden  they  lived  harmoniously  amongst  themselves, 
and  were  greatly  respected  by  the  Dutch  for  their  dili- 
gence, fidelity,  and  good  morals  5  the  magistrates  having 
occasion  to  reprehend  some  of  the  French  Protestants  who 
also  resided  in  their  city,  made  this  public  declaration, 
<  these  English  have  lived  amongst  us  ten  years,  and  yet 
we  never  had  any  suit  or  accusation  against  any  of  them.' 
Their  numbers  were  increased,  and  at  the  end  of  eleven 
years  the  church  had  three  hundred  communicants. 

Robinson  was  a  learned  and  pious  man,  well  versed  in 
theology,  and  a  subtle  disputant.  He  had  adopted  the 
creed  of  Calvin,  and  a  dispute  having  arisen  between  the 
two  professors  of  theology  in  the  university,  one  being  a 
disciple  of  Calvin  and  the  other  of  Arminius,  the  people 
entered  zealously  into  the  dispute,  and  the  aid  of  Robin- 
son was  sought  by  the  Calvinists,  and  according  to  the 
account  of  Bradford,  who  was  present,  (but  a  partial  wit- 
ness however,)  completely  foiled  Episcopius  the  Arminian 
professor.  He  relaxed  however  from  his  rigid  principles 
of  separation,  and  allowed  the  pious  members  of  the 
Church  of  England,  and  of  the  reformed  churches  gene- 


12  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

rally,  to  communicate  with  his,  making  this  public  decla- 
ration, that  he  separated  from  no  particular  church,  but 
from  the  corruption  of  all  churches.  The  particular 
sentiments  as  to  ecclesiastical  government  which  were 
held  by  the  church  over  which  Robinson  was  pastor,  and 
which  had  a  peculiar  influence  upon  the  conduct  and  cha- 
racter of  the  settlers  of  Plymouth,  have  been  comprised 
under  the  following  heads.* 

(1)  '  That  no  church  ought  to  consist  of  more  members 
than  can  conveniently  meet  together  for  worship  and  dis- 
cipline.' 

(2)  '  That  every  church  of  Christ  is  to  consist  only  of 
such  as  appear  to  believe  in  and  obey  him.' 

(3)  '  That  any  competent  member  of  such,  have  a  right, 
when  conscience  obliges  them,  to  form  themselves  into  a 
distinct  church.' 

(4)  '  That  this  incorporation  is  by  some  contract  or 
covenant,  express  or  implied.' 

(5)  '  That  being  thus  incorporated,  they  have  a  right  to 
choose  their  own  officers.' 

(6)  '  That  these  officers  are  Pastors,  or  teaching  Elders, 
Ruling  Elders,  and  Deacons. 

(7)  '  That  Elders  being  chosen  and  ordained,  have  no 
power  to  rule  the  church  but  by  consent  of  the  brethren.' 

(S)  '  That  all  elders  and  all  churches  are  equal  in  respect 
of  powers  and  privileges.' 

(9)  '  With  respect  to  ordinances,  they  held  that  baptism 
is  to  be  administered  to  visible  believers,  and  their  infant 
children  ;  but  they  admitted  only  the  children  of  commu- 
nicants to  baptism.  That  the  Lord's  supper  is  to  be 
received  sitting  at  the  table,  (whilst  they  were  in  Holland 
they  received  it  every  Lord's  day.)      That  ecclesiastical 

'^  Dr  Belknap's  Life  of  John  Robinson. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  I3 

censures  where  wholly  spiritual,  and  not  to  be  accompanied 
with  temporal  penalties.' 

(10)  'They  admitted  no  holy  days  but  the  Christain 
sabbath,  though  they  had  occasionally  days  of  fasting  and 
thanksgiving ;  and  finally,  they  renounced  all  right  of 
human  invention,  or  imposition  in  religious  matters.' 


(        14       ) 


CHAPTER  III. 

Robinson's  Congregation  resolve  to  Emigrate  to  America. — Negotiations  with 
the  Virginia  Company. — Robinson's    Sermons  to  those  who  had  resolved  to 

go. Pastoral   Letter. — Part  of  the  Congregation  embark  for   England,  and 

afterwards  for  America. — Their  Voyage  across  the  Atlantic. — Treachery  of 
the  Captain. — They  reach  Cape  Cod  Harbor. — Subscribe  a  Governmental 
Compact. 

Robinson  and  his  church,  after  a  residence  of  eleven 
years  at  Leyden,  came  to  a  determination  to  emigrate  to 
America.  The  reasons  which  induced  them  to  adopt  this 
bold  design,  were  such  as  reflect  much  honor  upon  their 
moral  and  patriotic  character.  The  loose  habits  of  the 
commercial  people  with  whom  they  sojourned,  and  their 
careless  observance  of  the  sabbath,  produced  in  the  minds 
of  these  austere  and  pious  people  an  apprehension  that 
their  children  might  be  contaminated  by  the  effects  of  evil 
interpourse,  and  might  be  drawn  by  the  prospect  of  com- 
mercial advantages  or  by  the  allurements  of  pleasure 
(which  a  great  city  so  abundantly  affords)  from  their 
habits  of  religious  simplicity,  and  from  the  contemplation 
of  those  subjects  to  which  they  had  devoted  all  their  af- 
fections, and  on  which  they  considered  their  eternal  wel- 
fare to  depend.  Although  England  had  driven  them  from 
her  bosom,  yet  their  long  absence  had  not  destroyed  that 
devoted  attachment  which  they  cherished  in  their  hearts 
to  the  land  which  gave  them  birth  :  they  could  not  endure 
the  reflection  that  their  children  would  lose  their  national 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  15 

character  and  the  language  of  their  fathers.  They  wish- 
ed to  live  under  the  dominion  of  their  native  sovereign,  in 
any  part  of  his  empire  in  which  they  could  enjoy  their 
religious  faith  unmolested,  and  they  cherished  a  lively 
hope  that  they  should  be  able  to  rear  the  true  church  of 
Christ  in  the  American  wilderness,  and  still  form  a  part  of 
the  English  nation. 

Some  other  considerations  strengthened  their  resolution 
to  abandon  Holland,  amongst  which  were  the  extreme 
difficulty  of  subsisting  themselves  ;  many  who  came  over 
from  England  with  fair  fortunes,  after  exhausting  them, 
were  either  compelled  to  return,  or  to  live  meanly  there  ; 
they  considered  the  climate  as  unfavorable  to  health,  and 
having  been  educated  to  husbandry,  they  could  not  readily 
accommodate  their  habits  to  those  of  the  mechanical  and 
commercial  people  of  Leyden,  and  many  fell  into  prema- 
ture old  age  from  excessive  labor.  Influenced  by  all  these 
considerations,  they  persisted  in  their  determination  to  emi- 
grate, but  hesitated  some  time  as  to  the  place. 

The  Dutch  made  them  advantageous  offers  if  they  would 
settle  in  some  of  their  foreign  plantations,  but  so  invinci- 
ble was  their  attachment  to  England  that  their  offers  were 
rejected.  Some  were  for  settling  in  Guiana.  After  seve- 
ral days  of  fasting  and  humiliation,  in  which  they  humbly 
sought  the  Lord  to  throw  light  on  their  paths,  it  was  re- 
solved to  emigrate  to  that  part  of  America  which  was  then 
known  by  the  name  of  Virginia,  and  which,  at  that  time, 
included  all  that  part  of  North  America  which  was  claimed 
by  the  English.  Although  they  entertained  many  appre- 
hensions respecting  this  course,  yet,  they  seemed  to  have 
but  a  choice  of  difficulties.  In  addition  to  the  moral  rea- 
sons for  removing  to  that  part  of  America,  they  were  under 
some  apprehensions  that  the  war  between  the  Spaniards 
and  the  Dutch  might  be  renewed,  as  the  truce  which  had 


16  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

existed  between  those  nations  for  nearly  twenty  years  was 
about  expiring,  and  if  the  Spaniards  were  successful,  their 
situation  would  be  deplorable.  This  consideration  induced 
them  to  take  the  chance  of  living  in  a  country  which 
might  be  considered  as  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  throne 
of  England,  and  reconciled  them  to  the  prospect  of  their 
toils  in  subduing  a  wilderness,  and  of  encountering  .the 
difficulties  and  dangers  of  savage  warfare. 

Induced  by  these  considerations,  they  appointed  John 
Carver  and  Robert  Cushman  their  agents  to  go  to  Eng- 
land for  the  purpose  of  making  an  application  to  the  Vir- 
ginia company,  and  also  to  ascertain  whether  King  James 
was  disposed  to  tolerate  them  in  the  practice  of  their  reli- 
gion, in  the  uninhabited  wilderness  which  they  proposed 
to  occupy. 

The  agents  proceeded  to  England  with  letters  from  the 
congregation  to  Sir  Edwyn  Sandys  and  Sir  John  Worsten- 
holme,  two  principal  members  of  the  Virginia  Company. 

In  simple  and  touching  language  they  described  their 
feelings  and  the  reasons  which  induced  them  to  emigrate. 
'  Weaned  from  the  delicate  milk  of  their  own  country,  and 
so  inured  to  the  difficulties  of  a  strange  land,  that  no  small 
things  would  discourage  them,  or  make  them  wish  to  return 
home,  they  had  acquired  habits  of  frugality,  industry,  and 
self-denial ;  and  were  united  in  a  solemn  covenant,  by 
which  they  were  bound  to  seek  the  welfare  of  the  whole 
company,  and  of  every  individual  person.'  The  letters 
also  contained  an  exposition  of  their  religious  creed  :  they 
represented  themselves  as  agreeing  with  the  French  re- 
formed churches  in  faith  and  in  discipline,  and  differing 
only  in  some  incidental  points. 

The  Virginia  company  received  their  application  favor- 
ably, the  letter  was  not  submitted  to  the  king  and  council, 
but  Sir  Robert  Norton,  the  Secretary  of  State,  was  in- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  17 

duced  to  use  his  influence  with  archbishop  Abbot,  who  had 
succeeded  Bancroft,  and  who  was  a  prelate  of  mild  dispo- 
sition and  tolerating  principles,  and  by  his  kind  offices  the 
king  was  with  some  difficulty  induced  to  say  that  he  would 
connive  at  their  worship,  but  denied  any  official  tolera- 
tion. 

The  agents  obtained  nothing  but  verbal  promises,  and 
returned  without  any  written  grant,  or  charter  of  rights  ; 
but  upon  the  whole,  the  Leyden  congregation  were  satis- 
fied. Trusting  to  hope,  and  sustained  by  religion,  they 
came  to  a  final  determination  to  emigrate.  They  could 
not,  however,  transport  themselves  to  America  without  as- 
sistance, and  for  this  purpose  they  were  induced  to  apply 
to  the  merchant  adventurers  composing  the  Virginia  com- 
pany, but  before  they  could  settle  terms  with  them,  in 
consequence  of  the  dissensions  which  prevailed  in  the 
company,  and  their  desire  to  obtain  the  most  favorable 
they  were  delayed  for  more  than  two  years. 

The  Virginia  company,  in  their  connection  with  Robin- 
son's congregation,  regarded  only  the  commercial  profits 
which  they  expected  to  derive  from  their  settlement  in 
America,  and  felt  none  of  that  holy  zeal  which  impelled 
this  pious  people  to  abandon  the  luxuries  and  the  comforts 
of  civilized  society,  and  to  seek  the  wilderness.  This 
company  had  obtained  a  monopoly  of  the  trade  under  cer- 
tain restrictions  for  a  certain  period.  But  they  had  never 
acquired  any  title  to  the  soil.  The  whole,  excepting  a 
small  part  of  Virginia,  and  a  small  Dutch  settlement  on 
the  North  River,  was  in  the  possession  of  the  Aboriginals. 
It  was  said,  however,  that  a  patent  was  taken  for  the  use 
of  Robinson's  congregation,  at  the  instance  of  the  agents 
in  the   name  of  Jacob  Wincob,   a  religious  man    of  the 

3 


18  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY, 

family. of  the  Countess  of  Lincoln,  but  this  story  rests  on 
tradition  ;  at  any  rate,  the  patent  was  never  used.* 

In  order  to  ascertain  the  precise  terms  to  which  the 
Virginia  company  were  willing  to  accede,  the  Leyden 
congregation  sent  their  agents  once  more  to  England. 
After  considerable  negotiation,  they  were  induced  to  con- 
clude an  agreement  with  the  Merchant  Adventurers  on  the 
following  hard  terms,  viz  : 

1st.  That  every  person  who  went,  being  sixteen  years 
old  and  upwards,  should  be  rated  at  £10,  and  that  £10  be 
accounted  a  single  share. 

2d.  That  every  one  who  went  and  furnished  himself 
with  £10,  either  in  money  or  provisions,  should  be  esti- 
mated at  £20  in  stock,  and  in  the  division  of  profits  should 
receive  a  double  share. 

3.  That  the  partnership  between  the  planters  and  ad- 
venturers should  continue  seven  years  '  except  some  unex- 
pected impediments  do  cause  the  whole  company  to  agree 
otherwise,'  and  that  '  all  the  profits  and  benefits  obtained 
during  the  time  by  trade,  trafllic,  trusting,  working,  fishing, 
or  any  other  means  of  any  other  person  or  persons  remain 
still  in  the  common  stock  till  the  division.' 

4.  That  they  should  upon  their  arrival  choose  a  number 
of  fit  persons  to  furnish  their  ships  and  boats  for  fishing 
upon  the  sea,  employing  the  rest  in  their  several  faculties 
upon  the  land,  as  building  houses,  tilling  and  planting  the 
ground,  and  making  such  commodities  as  shall  be  most 
useful  for  the  colony. 

5.  That  at  the  end  of  the  seven  years,  the  capital  and 
the  profits,  viz  :  the  houses,  lands,  goods  and  chattels  be 
equally  divided  amongst  the  adventurers  —  if  any  debt  or 
detriment  concerning  this  adventure. 

*  Hubbard. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  19 

6.  Whoever  should  come  to  the  colony  afterwards,  or 
put  anything  into  the  stock,  should  at  the  end  of  seven 
years,  share  proportionably  to  his  time. 

7.  Any  one  carrying  his  w^ife,  children  or  servants,  should 
be  allowed  for  every  person  of  the  age  of  sixteen  or  more, 
a  single  share  in  the  division  ;  if  he  provided  them  with 
necessaries,  a  double  share,  or  if  they  were  between  ten 
and  sixteen,  two  of  them  to  be  reckoned  for  a  person  both 
in  transportation  and  division. 

8.  That  the  children  under  ten  years  of  age  then  going, 
should  have  no  other  share  in  the  division  than  fifty  acres 
of  unmanured  lands. 

9.  That  the  executors  of  such  persons  as  should  die  pre- 
viously to  the  expiration  of  seven  years,  should  take  shares 
in  the  division  proportionably  to  the  duration  of  the  lives 
of  the  testators. 

10.  That  all  persons  belonging  to  the  colony  were  to 
have  meat,  drink  and  apparel,  and  all  provisions  out  of  the 
common  stock  and  goods  of  said  colony. 

The  agents  insisted  that  at  the  end  of  seven  years,  the 
houses  and  lands,  especially  gardens  and  fields,  should  re- 
main undivided,  and  should  then  be  held  by  the  planters 
only,  and  that  the  planters  should  have  two  days  in  each 
week  to  devote  to  their  own  purposes ;  but  Cushman,  the 
principal  agent,  finding  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  pre- 
vail on  the  company  to  accede  to  these  terms,  and  fearing 
that  the  plan  might  miscarry,  consented  to  their  exactions, 
which  he  was  the  more  inclined  to  do,  inasmuch  as  all 
who  intended  to  remove  had  sold  their  estates  and  put  the 
proceeds  into  a  common  fund. 

Amongst  this  pious  people  no  secular  concerns  could 
be  transacted  without  the  aid  of  prayer,  so  entirely  were 
their  minds  devoted  to  religious  contemplation  and  exer- 
cises that  no  prospect  of  temporal  advantages  could  influ- 


20  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

ence  their  feelings  or  allure  their  inclinations  ; — whenever 
they  met  for  the  purposes  of  business,  the  aid  of  the  Lord 
was  invoked  with  a  sincerity  correspondent  to  their  zeal. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  year  1620,  Robinson  delivered 
a  discourse,  the  object  of  which  was,  to  strengthen  and 
confirm  the  resolution  of  those  who  were  about  to  go  to 
America.  They  had  ascertained  that  a  majority  of  the 
congregation  were  inclined  to  emigrate,  but  all  who  had 
come  to  that  determination  could  not  immediately  prepare 
themselves  for  the  voyage,  those  who  remained  (being  the 
majority,)  required  of  Robinson  that  he  should  stay  with 
them,  and  proposed  that  Brewster  the  ruling  elder,  should 
go  with  the  minority,  and  such  was  the  final  arrangement ; 
the  minority  were  '  to  be  an  absolute  church  of  them- 
selves, as  well  as  those  that  should  stay  ;  with  this  pro- 
viso, that,  as  any  should  go  over  or  return,  they  should 
be  reputed  as  members,  without  further  dismission  or  tes- 
timonial :'  —  the  others  intended  to  follow  as  soon  as 
circumstances  would  permit. 

In  July  they  kept  another  solemn  day  of  prayer  and 
Robinson  again  preached  to  them  ;  the  exhortation  in  this 
celebrated  sermon  '  breathed  a  noble  spirit  of  christian 
liberty,'  and  discovered  a  spirit  of  liberality  the  more 
wonderful  as  the  age  was  an  age  of  bigotry,  and  proceed- 
ing as  it  did  from  one  who  at  one  period  of  his  ministry 
had  been  distinguished  as  a  rigid  and  unyielding  Separa- 
tist. '  Brethren,'  said  he,  '  we  are  now  quickly  to  part 
from  one  another,  and  whether  I  may  ever  live  to  see  your 
face  on  earth  any  more,  the  God  of  heaven  only  knows ; 
but  whether  the  Lord  hath  appointed  that  or  riot,  I  charge 
you  before  God  and  his  blessed  angels,  that  you  follow  me 
no  farther  than  you  have  seen  me  follow  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  If  God  reveal  anything  to  you,  by  any  other 
instrument  of  his,  be  as  ready  to  receive  it,  as  ever  you 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY,  12 

were  to  receive  any  truth  by  my  ministry  ;  for  I  am  verily 
persuaded  —  I  am  very  confidant,  that  the  Lord  has  more 
truth  yet  to  break  forth  out  of  his  holy  word.  For  my 
part  I  cannot  sufficiently  bewail  the  condition  of  the 
reformed  churches,  who  are  come  to  a  period  in  religion, 
and  will  go  at  present  no  farther  than  the  instruments  of 
their  reformation.  The  Lutherans  cannot  be  drawn  to  go 
beyond  what  Luther  saw  :  whatever  part  of  his  will  our 
good  God  has  revealed  to  Calvin,  they  will  rather  die  than 
embrace  it.  And  the  Calvinists  you  see  stick  fast  where 
they  were  left  by  that  great  man  of  God,  who  yet  saw  not 
all  things. 

'  This  is  a  misery  much  to  be  lamented  ;  for  though  they 
were  burning  and  shining  lights  in  their  times,  yet  they 
penetrated  not  into  the  whole  counsel  of  God ;  but  were 
they  now  living,  would  be  as  willing  to  embrace  farther 
light,  as  that  which  they  first  received.  I  beseech  you, 
remember  it  is  an  article  of  your  church  covenant,  "  that 
you  be  ready  to  receive  whatever  truth  shall  be  made 
known  to  you  from  the  written  word  of  God."  Remember 
that,  and  every  other  article  of  your  sacred  covenant. 
But  I  must  here  withal  exhort  you  to  take  heed  what  you 
receive  as  truth.  Examine  it,  consider  it,  and  compare  it 
with  other  scriptures  of  truth,  before  you  receive  it,  for  it 
is  not  possible  that  the  christian  world  should  come  so 
lately  out  of  such  thick  anti-christian  darkness,  and  that 
perfection  of  knowledge  should  break  forth  at  once. 

'  I  must  also  advise  you  to  abandon,  avoid,  and  shake 
off  the  name  of  Brownist.  It  is  a  mere  nick-name,  and 
a  brand  for  the  making  religion,  and  the  professors  of  it 
odious  to  the  christian  world.' 

The  preacher  in  his  selection  of  a  text  to  this  sermon, 
was  peculiarly  happy.  It  was  from  Ezra,  chap,  viii,  verse 
21,'  I  procla  imed  a  fast  there  at  the  river  Ahava,  that  we 


22  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

might  afflict  ourselves  before  our  God,  to  seek  of  him  a 
right  way  for  us,  and  for  our  little  ones,  and  for  all  our 
substance.'  So  perfectly  acquainted  were  the  Puritans 
with  the  holy  writings,  that  occasions  could  seldom  arise 
when  they  could  not  find  passages  singularly  and  strikingly 
adapted  to  their  circumstances. 

Robinson  also  addressed  a  pastoral  letter  to  them,  in 
which  he  advised  them  in  relation  to  spiritual  matters,  and 
exhorted  them  to  the  practice  of  charity  and  the  bearing 
of  each  others  infirmities,  he  told  them  that  '  their  in- 
tended course  of  civil  community  would  minister  continual 
occasion  of  offence,  and  would  be  as  fuel  for  that  fire, 
except  they  diligently  quenched  it  with  brotherly  forbear- 
ance ;  and  if  taking  offence  causelessly  or  easily  at  men's 
doings,  be  so  carefully  to  be  avoided,  how  much  more 
heed  is  to  be  taken  that  we  take  not  offence  at  God  him- 
self? which  yet  we  certainly  do,  so  oft  as  we  do  murmur 
at  his  providence  in  our  crosses,  or  bear  impatiently  such 
afflictions  wherewith  he  is  pleased  to  visit  us.  Store  up 
therefore  patience  against  the  evil  day  ;  without  which  we 
take  offence  at  the  Lord  himself  in  his  holy  and  just  works. 
A  fourth  thing  there  is  carefully  to  be  provided  for ; 
namely,  that  with  your  common  employment,  you  join 
common  affections  truly  bent  upon  the  general  good,  avoid- 
ing as  a  deadly  plague  of  your  both  common  and  special 
comforts,  all  retiredness  of  mind  for  proper  advantage  ; 
and  all  singularly  affected  every  manner  or  way,  let  every 
man  repress  in  himself  and  the  whole  body  in  each  person, 
as  so  many  rebels  against  the  common  good,  all  private 
respects  of  men^s  selves,  not  sorting  with  the  general  con- 
venience. And  as  men  are  careful  not  to  have  a  new 
house  shaken  with  any  violence,  before  it  be  well  settled, 
and  the  parts  firmly  knit;  so  be  you,  I  beseech  you  breth- 
eren,   much  more    careful  that  the  house  of  God  (which 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  23 

you  are,  and  are  to  be,)  be  not  shaken  with  unnecessary 
novelties,  or  other  oppositions  to  the  first  settling  thereof ; 
lastly,  whereas  you  are  to  become  a  body  politic,  using 
amongst  yourselves  civil  government,  and  are  not  furnished 
with  special  eminency  above  the  rest,  to  be  chosen  by  you 
into  office  of  government;  let  your  wisdom  and  godliness 
appear  not  only  in  choosing  such  persons  as  do  entirely 
love,  and  will  promote  the  common  good  ;  but  also  in 
yielding  unto  them  all  due  honor  and  obedience  in  their 
lawful  administration,  not  beholding  in  them  the  ordinary- 
ness  of  their  persons,  but  God's  ordinance  for  your  good ; 
not  being  like  the  foolish  multitude,  who  more  honor 
the  gay  coat,  than  either  the  virtuous  mind  of  the  man, 
or  the  glorious  ordinance  of  the  Lord  :  but  you  know 
better  things,  and  that  the  image  of  the  Lord's  power 
and  authority  luhich  the  magistrate  beareth  is  honor- 
able, in  hoio  mean  persons  soever;  and  this  duty  you 
may  the  more  willingly,  and  ought  the  more  conscion- 
ably  to  perform,  because  you  are  (at  least  for  the  pre- 
sent,) to  have  them  for  your  ordinary  governors,  which 
yourselves  shall  make  choice  of  for  that  work.  Sundry 
other  things  of  importance,  I  could  put  you  in  mind 
of,  and  of  those  before  mentioned  in  more  words  ;  but 
I  will  not  so  far  wrong  your  goodly  minds,  as^  to  think 
you  heedless  of  these  things,  there  being  also  divers 
amongst  you  so  well  able  both  to  admonish  themselves 
and  others  of  what  concerneth  them.' 

On  the  21st  of  July,  the  emigrants  quitted  Leyden  to 
embark  at  Delfthaven.  They  were  accompanied  by  many 
of  their  friends,  and  by  some  who  came  from  Amsterdam. 
The  next  day  they  embarked  for  England  in  a  vessel  called 
the  Speedwell  :  —  At  the  moment  of  their  going  on  board, 
Robinson  who  had  accompanied  them  '  fell  on  his  knees,' 
and  with  tearful  eyes  '  in  a  most  ardent  and  affectionate 


24  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

prayer,  committed  them  to'  their  divine  Protector.'*  So 
great  was  the  grief  of  this  little  church,  all  the  members  of 
which  had  been  endeared  to  each  other  from  so  many  cir- 
cumstances, and  united  by  so  many  ties,  that  when  they 
finally  separated,  the  agonising  expression  of  it  drew  tears 
even  from  the  Dutch,  who  had  assembled  on  the  quay  to 
see  them  depart,  insensible  as  they  usually  were  to  sorrow- 
ful emotion. 

The  Speedwell  arrived  safely  at  South  Hampton. 
Another  vessel  of  one  hundred  and  eighty  tons  called  the 
May  Flower  was  chartered  in  London,  by  Cushman,  and 
Carver  went  to  superintend  her  equipment. 

Thomas  Weston  a  merchant  of  London,  who  had  ad- 
ventured deeply  in  this  enterprise,  went  to  South  Hampton 
to  see  that  they  were  dispatched  ;  after  the  arrival  of  the 
Speedwell  both  vessels  were  provisioned  and  fitted  for  the 
voyage,  and  a  trading  stock  of  £1700  was  put  on  board. 
It  was  intended  that  the  Speedwell  should  remain  with  the 
colonists,  and  that  the  May  Flower  after  landing  her  pas- 
sengers in  America  should  return  to  England. 

On  the  5th  of  August  1620,  both  ships  with  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  passengers  sailed  from  South  Hamp- 
ton for  America.  The  company  were  distributed  be- 
tween the  ships  and  a  governor  and  two  or  three  assist- 
ants  chosen   fore   ach,  to  attend   to    the    distribution   of 

*  Mr  Robinson  never  reached  America,  the  means  of  his  congregation  had 
been  exhausted,  in  the  transportation  of  that  part  of  his  church  which  had 
already  left  him,  he  remained  at  Leyden  until  the  22d  of  February  1625, 
when  he  was  seized  with  a  complaint  which  terminated  his  excellent  life 
on  the  1st  of  March  succeeding,  in  the  fiftieth  year  of  his  age.  His  widow 
and  children  after  his  death  removed  to  the  Plymouth  colony,  where  his  poster- 
ity remain  and  are  numerous  at  this  day.  The  Church  over  which  he  presided 
and  which  his  talents  contributed  so  much  to  illustrate,  was  dissolved,  the  mem- 
bers were  dispersed,  some  remaining  in  Holland,  and  some  going  to  America. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 


25 


the  provisions,  and  to  all  things  respecting  the  wel- 
fare of  the  company.  Reynolds,  the  master  of  the  Speed- 
well, before  they  left  the  British  Channel  found  his 
vessel  too  leaky  to  proceed.  Both  ships  put  into  Dart- 
mouth, and  the  Speedwell  was  overhauled,  and  repair- 
ed, and  was  supposed  to  have  been  made  sea-worthy. 
They  sailed  again  on  the  21st  of  August.  The  Speedwell 
soon  began  to  leak  again,  and  when  they  had  sailed  about 
an  hundred  leagues,  the  master  declared  that  with  constant 
pumping  he  was  scarcely  able  to  keep  her  from  sinking, 
and  the  ships  put  into  Plymouth  ;  on  searching,  no  defect 
appearing,  the  Icakiness  of  the  Speedwell  was  attributed 
to  general  weakness,  and  she  was  judged  unseavvorthy. 
It  was  supposed  that  the  bad  condition  of  that  vessel  was 
exaggerated  by  the  master  to  relieve  himself  from  an  en- 
gagement which  he  was  anxious  to  avoid. 

About  twenty  of  the  passengers  were  discouraged  and 
would  not  reimbark.  The  remainder  being  one  hundred 
and  one,  went  on  board  the  May  Flower,  and  the  provisions 
of  the  Speedwell  being  shifted  to  the  May  Flower,  she 
sailed  on  the  6th  of  September,  and  the  Pilgrims  bade  an 
everlasting  farewell  to  England  !  , 

Little  did  these  adventurers  and  humble  wanderers  think 
when  they  at  last  commenced  this  memorable  voyage,  that 
they  were  destined  to  be  amongst  the  principal  founders 
of  the  mightiest  republic  on  earth,  —  little  did  they  think 
that  their  posterity  would  become  as  numerous  as  the 
sands  on  the  sea  shore. —  Little  did  they  think  that  the 
spirit  of  religious  freedom  which  glowed  in  their  hearts 
would  expand  into  those  proud  notions  of  personal  inde- 
pendence which  in  the  course  of  a  century  and  a  half 
would  burst  the  ties  of  allegiance,  defy  the  omnipotence 
of  Parliament,  the  power  of  the  crown,  and  the  terrors  of 
prerogative.  The  origin  of  American  independence  may 
4 


26  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

be  clearly  traced  to  tlie  bold  and  uncompromising  spirit  of 
the  puritans  of  New  England. 

The  May  Flower  proceeded  with  favorable  gales  on 
her  destined  voyage  which  was  to  Hudson's  river,  but  the 
winds  soon  changed  and  stormy  weather  succeeded,  a 
main  beam  was  sprung,  and  the  company  were  half  inclin- 
ed to  return,  but  the  application  of  an  iron  screw  having 
restored  the  beam  to  its  place  they  resolved  to  proceed. 
A  servant  of  Samuel  Fuller  died  on  the  voyage,  and  a 
child  was  born  to  Stephen  Hopkins  who  was  called  Oce- 
anus. 

On  the  ninth  of  November  they  first  made  land  being 
a  part  of  the  south  shore  of  Cape  Cod,  this  land  being  to 
the  north  of  their  destination.  They  run  south,  but 
being  entangled  amongst  the  sands  arid  shoals  of  cape 
Mallebarre  *  they  put  about.  The  danger  of  the  naviga- 
tion, and  their  eager  anxiety  after  their  long  and  fatiguing 
voyage  to  be  put  on  shore,  joined  to  the  treachery  of  tiie 
captain  who  had  been  bribed  by  the  Dutch  West  India 
Company  not  to  land  them  on  the  shores  of  the  Hudson,  all 
conspired  to  alter  their  original  destination,  and  induced 
them  to  run  north.  The  Dutch  had  been  anxious  that 
they  should  settle  in  some  of  their  colonies;  but  as  the 
subjects  of  the  republic  ;  when  they  ascertained  that  they 
were  determined  to  persevere  in  their  allegiance  to  Eng- 
land they  were  apprehensive  that  they  would  interfere 
with  their  settlements  on  the  Hudson.  The  title  to  the 
river  and  the  adjacent  country  was  still  unsettled  between 
Holland  and  England,  and  if  the  English  title  to  the  coun- 
try should  be  strengthened  by  the  occupation  of  English 
subjects,  the  Hollanders  apprehended  the  destruction  of 
theirs. 

"  Now  part  of  Chatham. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  27 

The  next  day  (Nov.  10)  the  May  Flower  doubled  the  ex- 
treme point  of  Cape  Cod,  and  a  storm  approaching,  an- 
chored in  a  harbor*  which  bore  the  name  of  the  cape, 
and  was  so  called  by  Gosnold  in  1G02  from  the  great 
quantities  of  cod  fish  which  he  took  there.  Smith,  the 
founder  of  Virginia,  in  his  voyage  along  the  coast  in  1614 
had  called  it  Cape  James,  but  the  orginal  name  has  been 
retained. 

The  master  of  the  ship,  alarmed  by  the  diminution  of 
provisions,  pressed  the  pilgrims  to  a  speedy  determination 
as  to  a  place  of  settlement  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
harbor  and  threatened  to  turn  them  on  shore  and  to  leave 
tliem  to  their  fate.  At  length  they  resolved  to  land,  but 
they  found  themselves  beyond  the  limits  of  the  South 
Virginia  Company,  an-d  the  charter  granted  to  them  by 
that  Company  became  ineffectual.  Their  servants  who  had 
not  been  members  of  the  Leyden  congregation,  but  who 
for  the  most  part  had  been  received  in  England,  manifested 
some  signs  of  disobedience,  and  seemed  to  anticipate  a 
perfect  freedom  from  the  restraints  both  of  law,  and  of 
government:  —  Apprehensive  that  many  difficulties  might 
arise  from  this  spirit  of  insubordination,  the  more  reflecting 
part  of  the  society  judged  it  best  that  before  they  disem- 
barked a  compact  to  obey  the  laws  established  by  the 
majori^,  should  be  signed  by  the  whole  company. 

They  were  then  under  no  authority  whatever,  and  with- 
out any  rule  of  government,  restrained  by  no  charter,  and 
acknowledging  no  authority  but  that  of  a  distant  monarch 
who  had  not  deigned  to  tell  them  how  he  would  have 
them  governed.  Necessity  drove  them  to  natural  law,  and 
they  adopted  the  only  plan  by  which  men  thus  situated 
could  be  governed  without  resorting  to  violence.     To  this 

*  Cape  Cod  Harbor,  in  Proviucetown. 


28  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

measure  all  consented,  and  after  solemnly  invoking  the 
throne  of  grace,  they  subscribed  the  following  compact 
unanimously. 

'  In  the  name  of  God,  Amen.  We  whose  names  are  un- 
derwritten, the  loyal  subjects  of  our  dread  sovereign  lord, 
king  James,  by  the  grace  of  God,  of  Great  Britain,  France, 
and  Ireland,  king,  defender  of  the  faith,  &c,  having  under- 
taken for  the  glory  of  God,  and  advancement  of  the  chris- 
tian faith,  and  honor  of  our  king  and  country,  a  voyage, 
to  plant  the  first  colony  in  the  Northern  parts  of  Virginia, 
do,  by  these  presents,  solemnly  and  mutually,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  God  and  of  one  another,  covenant  and  combine 
ourselves  together  into  a  civil  body  politic,  for  our  better 
ordering  and  preservation,  and  furtherance  of  the  ends 
aforesaid  ;  and  by  virtue  hereof,  to  enact,  constitute  and 
frame  such  just  and  equal  laws  and  ordinances,  acts,  consti- 
tutions and  offices,  from  time  to  time,  as  shall  be  thought 
most  meet  and  convenient,  for  the  general  good  of  the 
colony,  unto  which  we  promise  all  due  subjection  and  obe- 
dience. In  witness  whereof  we  have  hereunto  subscribed 
our  names,  at  Cape  Cod,  the  eleventh  day  of  November, 
in  the  year  of  the  reign  of  our  sovereign  lord,  king  James 
of  England,  France,  and  Ireland,  the  eighteenth,  and  of 
Scotland  the  fiftyfourth,  Anno  Domini  1620.' 

This  compact  was  subscribed  in  the  following  o||3er,  by 


No.  in  Family. 

No.  ja  Family. 

Mr  John  Carver.t 

8 

Edward  Fuller,! 

3 

Mr  William  Bradford,! 

2 

John  Turner, 

3 

Mr  Edward  Winslow.t 

5 

Francis  Eaton, f 

3 

Mr  William  Brewster.t 

6 

James  Chilton.f 

3 

Mr  Isaac  Allerton.t 

6 

John  Crackston, 

2 

Capt.  Miles  Standish,t 

2 

John  Billington.t 

4 

John  Alden, 

1 

Moses  Flelcher, 

1 

Mr  Samuel  Fuller, 

2 

John  Goodman, 

1 

Mr  Christopher  Martin.t 

4 

Degory  Priest, 

1 

t  Those  with  this  mark  brought  their  wives. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 


29 


No.  in  Family.  No.  in  Family. 

Mr  William  Mullins.t  5  Thomas  Williams,  1 

Mr  William  White, f  5  Gilbert  Winslow,  1 

[Besides  a  son   born  in  Cape  Cod  Edmund  Margeson,  1 

Harbor,  and  named  Peregrine.]  Peter  Brown,  1 

Mr  Richard  Warren,  1  Richard  Butteridge,  1 

John  Howland  (of  Carver's  family,)  George  Soule,  (of  Edward  Winslow's 
Mr  Stephen  Hopkins,!                         8  Family,) 

Edward  Til!y,t  4  Richard  Clarke,  1 

JohnTilly,t  3  Richard  Gardiner,  1 

Francis  Cook,  2  John  Allerton,  1 

Thomas  Rogers,  2  Thomas  English,  1 

Thomas  Tinker,!  3  Edward  Dotey,      >  Both  of  Stephen 

John  Ridgdale.t  2  Edward  Leister,    >  Hopkins'  family. 

This  brief  and  comprehensive  and  simple  instrument 
established  a  most  important  principle,  a  principle  which 
is  the  foundation  of  all  the  democratic  institutions  of 
America,  and  is  the  basis  of  the  republic,  and  however  it 
may  be  expanded  and  complicated  in  our  various  consti- 
tutions, however  unequally  power  may  be  distributed  in 
the  different  branches  of  our  various  governments,  has 
imparted  to  each  its  strongest  and  most  striking  charac- 
teristic. 

Many  philosophers  have  since  appeared  who  have  in  la- 
bored treatises  endeavored  to  prove  the  doctrine  that 
the  rights  of  man  are  unalienable,  and  nations  have  bled 
to  defend  and  enforce  them  ;  —  yet,  in  this  dark  age,  the 
age  of  despotism  and  superstition,  when  no  tongue  dared 
to  assert,  and  no  pen  to  write  this  bold  and  novel  doc- 
trine, a  doctrine  which  was  then  as  much  at  defiance  with 
common  opinion  as  with  actual  power,  of  which  the  mon- 
arch was  then  held  to  be  the  sole  fountain,  and  the  theory 
was  universal  that  all  popular  rights  were  granted  by  the 
crown,  in  this  remote  wilderness,  amongst  a  small  and  un- 
known band  of  wandering  outcasts,  the  principle  that  the 
will  of  the  majority  of  the  people  shall  govern,  was  first 
conceived,  and  was  first  practically  exemplified. 


30  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

The  pilgrims,  from  their  notions  of  primitive  Chris- 
tianity, the- force  of  circumstances,  and  that  pure  moral 
feeling  which  is  the  offspring  of  true  religion,  discovered  a 
truth  in  the  science  of  government  which  had  been  conceal- 
ed for  ages.  On  the  bleak  shore  of  a  barren  wilderness,  in 
the  midst  of  desolation,  with  the  blasts  of  winter  howling 
around  them,  and  surrounded  with  dangers  in  their  most 
awful  and  appalling  forms,  the  pilgrims  of  Leyden  laid 
the  foundation  of  American  liberty. 


(       31       ) 


CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Indians  of  New   England. 

The  historian  who  endeavors  to  trace  the  early  history 
of  the  aboriginals  of  New  England,  is  sorely  perplexed. 

All  rude  nations  have  preserved  some  memorials  even 
of  their  earliest  history  by  traditions  and  songs  ;  but  if 
any  such  existed  amongst  the  natives  of  New  England, 
they  have  escaped  the  notice  of  our  forefathers.  Their 
rugged  language,  deficient,  (as  it  is  said,  in  one  of  the 
parts  of  speech,)  admitted  not  the  melodies  of  song,  and 
although  their  gloomy  imaginations  could  indulge  in  dis- 
astrous prophecies,  yet  their  language  was  too  imperfect 
to  embody  them  even  into  the  uncouth  form  of  Sybiline 
verses.  They  had  neither  music  nor  minstrels,  and  the 
chaunt  of  the  bard  was  never  known  to  resound  in  the  for- 
ests of  New  England. 

Equally  destitute  were  they  of  the  rudest  monuments  of 
art.  The  tumulus  which  rise  in  the  most  barbarous  coun- 
tries to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  some  savage  hco  was 
never  discovered  here,  and  their  early  history  is  a  blank 
upon  which  the  most  indefatigable  research  cannot  discover 
a  trace.  Within  the  limits  of  the  Plymouth  Colony,  there 
is,  however,  one  solitary  monument  of  a  previous  people. 
It  is  a  rock  on  the  eastern  bank  of  Taunton  river,  covered 


32  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

with  sculpture,*  which  would  seem  to  indicate  a  design  to 
perpetuate  the  remembrance  of  some  event,  by  more  en- 
during marks  than  the  frail  and  temporary  scratches  of 
savages. 

This  rock  was  discovered  by  the  English  very  early.  In 
1712  it  attracted  the  attention  of  Cotton  IVlaiher,  who 
wrote  its  description,  which  was  published  in  the  transac- 
tions of  the  Royal  Society.  Since  then,  the  ingenuity  of 
many  antiquarians  both  in  Europe  and  America  has  been 
exerted  to  explain  the  mysteries  which  its  hieroglyphics  are 
supposed  to  conceal. 

Most  of  them  have  supposed  that  it  was  the  work  of  the 
aboriginals,  but  the  absence  of  any  similar  monument  in 
North  America,  and  the  total  ignorance  of  the  natives  as 
to  its  origin  and  design  would  seem  to  indicate  in  a  man- 
ner too  clear  to  admit  of  doubt,  that  we  must  look  else- 
where for  ils  authors.  Some  have  conjectured  that  it  was 
executed  by  a  people  who  were  passing  from  the  state  of  hi- 
eroglyphical  to  that  of  alphabetical  writing,  and  have  imag- 
ined they  could  discern  the  traces  of  letters,  and  have  cheer- 
ed their  imaginations  with  the  splendid  vision  of  a  Phenician 
barque,  driven  by  tempests  across  the  Atlantic,  and  seek- 
ing the  shelter  of  a  quiet  river  to  repair  the  injuries  of  the 
elements;  and  to  these  'ancient  mariners'  would  they  as- 
sign the  authorship  of  these  strange  characters,  which  bear, 
as  they  believe,  a  striking  similarity  to  those  of  ancient 
Phenicia.  If  this  rock  was  sculptured  by  the  Phenicians, 
it  is  a  monument  of  more  remote  antiquity  than  any  in  Eu- 
rope.   And  it  is  the  only  vestige  of  a  people  who  existed  in 

*  Familiarly  called  the  Dighton  Rock,  or  the  Writing  Rock.  This  rock  is 
about  seven  miles  from  Taunton  in  Assonet-neck,  formerly  a  part  of  Taunton, 
then  of  Dighton,  and  now  of  Berkley.  It  stands  on  the  low  water  line,  mea- 
suring at  its  base  eight  or  nine  feet ;  four  feet  in  height,  smooth  faced,  and  slop- 
ing towards  the  water. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  33 

the  fubulous  and  heroic  ages, — a  people  who  first  encounter- 
ed the  dangers  of  ocean  navigation,  and  whose  commercial 
enterprises  imparted  to  the  rude  barbarians  of  the  universal 
world  the  first  softening  touches  of  civilization. 

A  tradition  has  been  brought  forth  recently  by  a  modern 
Missionary,  (the  Rev.  Mr  Heckwelder)  which  deserves  a 
place  in  this  history.  It  is  given  with  a  few  variations,  in 
the  words  of  a  recent  historian.  This  tradition  is  said  to 
exist  amongst  the  Delavvares. 

'  The  Lenni  Lenape  [Delavvares,]  have  a  tradition  that 
their  forefathers,  many  hundred  years  past,  resided  in  a 
very  distant  country  in  the  western  part  of  the  American 
continent.  They  determined  on  migrating  to  the  East. 
After  a  long  journey  they  arrived  at  the  banks  of  the  Na- 
mcEsi-Sipu,  (Mississippi)  where  they  fell  in  with  the 
Mengwe,  (Iroquois,  or  Five  Nations)  who  had  also  emigrat- 
ed from  a  distant  country  with  similar  objects,  and  were 
proceeding  eastward  until  tliey  should  find  a  country 
which  suited  them.  The  territory  east  of  the  Mississippi 
was  inhabited  by  a  powerful  nation  who  had  built  many 
large  towns.  This  was  the  Alligewi,  from  whose  name 
that  of  the  Alleghany  river  and  mountains  have  been  de- 
rived. They  were  a  gigantic  race,  had  built  regular  forti- 
fications, and  had  constructed  their  defences  according  to 
ihe  rules  of  art.  The  Lenape  requested  of  them  permis- 
sion to  settle  in  their  country,  but  were  refused  ;  but  they 
gave  them  permission  to  pass  through  their  country  to 
seek  a  settlement  at  the  eastward.  As  soon  as  they  at- 
tempted the  passage  of  the  river,  the  Alligewi  perceiving 
their  vast  numbers,  attacked  them  furiously,  and  threaten- 
ed to  destroy  them  if  they  persisted.' 

'  The  Mengwe  who  had  been  passive  spectators  of  the 
attfmj)t  of  the  Lenape  and  it;-?  failure,  now  offered  to  join 
5 


34  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

them,  on  condition,  that  after  conquering  the  country, 
they  should  share  it.  This  proposal  was  accepted,  and  the 
resolution  was  taken  by  the  two  nations  that  they  would 
conquer  or  die.  A  war  was  commenced,  which  was  at- 
tended with  great  slaughter.  The  Alligewi  were  attacked 
in  their  fortifications,  and  after  the  lapse  of  many  years 
were  compelled  to  abandon  the  country,  and  to  escape 
down  the  Mississippi.  The  conquered  country  was  divi- 
ded. The  Mengwe  made  choice  of  the  lands  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  great  lakes,  and  on  their  tributary  streams,  and  the 
Lenape  occupied  the  lands  more  south.  They  preserved 
peace  with  each  other  and  increased  rapidly.  Some  of 
the  most  enterprising  of  the  hunters  and  warriors  of  the 
Lenape  crossed  the  mountains,  and  falling  on  streams 
running  eastward,  followed  them  down  the  Great  Bay 
river,  (Susquehannah)  thence  into  the  bay  itself,  (the 
Chesapeake.)  As  they  pursued  their  travels  near  the  salt 
water  lake,  (the  Atlantic)  they  discovered  the  great  river, 
(Delaware)  thence  exploring  eastward  through  the  Schey- 
ichbi  country,  (New  Jersey)  they  arrived  at  another  great 
stream,  (the  Hudson  river.)  The  country  was  uninhabited. 
The  hunters  returned  with  the  news.  Emigration  com- 
menced, and  settlements  were  made  on  each  of  the  four 
great  rivers,  the  Delaware,  Hudson,  Susquehannah  and 
Potomac.  The  Delaware,  to  which  they  gave  the  name 
of  Lenapewihittuck,  was  the  centre  of  their  possessions. 
Part  remained  on  both  sides  of  the  Mississippi.  More 
than  half  emigrated  and  settled  on  tlie  Atlantic.  The  emi- 
grants divided  themselves  into  three  tribes,  viz  :  the  Turtle, 
Turkey,  and  Wolf.  The  Turtle  calling  themselves  Unamis, 
and  the  Turkey,  Unalatchgo,  selected  ground  nearest  the 
sea,  between  the  coast  and  high  mountains.  As  they  mul- 
tiplied, their  settlements  extended  from  the  Mohicannit- 
tuck,  (river  of  the  Mohicans,  the  Hudson)  beyond  the  Po- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  35 

tomac.  The  Wolf  tribe  called  Minci  (Monseys)  who  lived 
in  the  rear  of  the  two  other  tribes  were  the  most  warlike 
of  the  Lenapc  ;  they  reached  from  Minisink,  where  they 
liad  their  council  seat  and  fire,  quite  to  the  Hudson  on  the 
east,  and  on  the  west  and  southwest  far  beyond  the  Sus- 
quehannah.' 

'  From  these  tribes  composing  the  body  of  the  Delawares, 
emanated  others,  who  adopted  or  received  various  names, 
and  who  were  called  the  <Tiandchildren  of  the  parent  tribe. 
This  was  the  case  with  the  IMahicanni,  or  Mohicans  in  the 
east.  Choosing  to  live  by  themselves,  they  crossed  the 
Hudson  river,  called  by  them  Mohicannituck,  and  spread 
themselves  over  all  that  country  which  now  composes  the 
Eastern  States. —  New  tribes  again  sprung  from  them 
wiiich  assumed  distinct  names,  still  acknowledging  the 
parent  stock  to  be  their  grandfather.  The  Delawares 
at  last  thought  proper  to  enlarge  their  council  house,  for 
their  Mahicanni  grandchildren,  that  they  might  come  to 
their  fire,  that  is  to  say,  be  benefited  by  their  advice,  in 
order  also  to  keep  alive  their  family  connexions  and  main- 
tain a  league  with  each  other.  In  a  similar  manner  a 
body  of  the  Lenape,  called  Nanticokes,  together  with 
their  offspring,  proceeded  south  as  far  as  Maryland  and 
Virginia.  The  council  house  was  extended  for  their  ben- 
fit  to  the  Potomac' 

'  Meanwhile  the  Mengvve  who  had  first  settled  on  the 
great  lakes,  had  always  kept  a  number  of  canoes  in  readi- 
ness to  save  themselves  in  case  the  Allegewi  should  return, 
and  their  number  also  increasing,  they  had  in  time  pro- 
ceeded farther,  and  settled  below  the  lakes,  along  the 
river  St  Lawrence.  In  their  progress  they  again  came  in 
contact  with  the  Lenape,  their  contiguity  became  the 
cause    of   hostility    and    terminated    in    establishing    the 


36  MEMOIR  OF  rLYMOUTII  COLONY. 

dcciyive  superiority  of  the  Mengwe,  known  afterwards  to 
the  English  as  the  Five  Nations. 

Interesting  and  plausible  as  this  tradition  is  made  to 
appear, —  supported  as  it  is  by  the  radical  difierence  which 
is  known  to  exist  between  the  languages  of  the  Iroquois 
and  Delawares,  and  the  striking  similarity  of  all  the  dia- 
lects of  the  Atlantic  tribes  from  New  England  to  Virginia, 
a  certain  indication  of  a  common  origin,  yet  tlje  weight 
of  probability  is  with  those  who  deny  the  existence  of  the 
tradition,  which  by  them  is  traced  to  the  fancy  and  the 
falsehood  of  the  Indian  narrators,  and  the  overweening 
credulity  of  Heckwelder,  unsupported  by  any  oral  history 
whatever. 

Reluctantly  do  we  yield  to  the  force  of  the  arguments 
of  those  who  have  questioned  the  existence  of  this  tradi- 
tion.—  Yet  facts  more  astonishing  than  these  seem  to  be 
admitted  by  common  consent,  namely,  that  the  European 
and  American  races  are  descended  from  a  common  ances- 
tor, whose  children  proceeding  east  and  west  from  the 
plains  of  central  Asia,  the  cradle  of  the  human  race  ; — 
around  the  globe,  after  the  lapse  of  thirty  centuries,  en- 
countered each  other  in  the  American  wilderness,  exhibit- 
ing the  most  striking  contrast  in  their  habits,  manners, 
customs,  language,  morals,  laws,  religion,  knowledge, 
complexion,  and  piiysical  organization,  a  dissimilarity  so 
great  that  to  a  sceptical  and  unrellecting  mind,  it  seems 
irreconcilable  with  the  notion  of  a  common  origin. 

The  habits,  manners,  customs,  and  character  of  the 
aboriginals  of  America,  have  been  so  often  described,  that 
any  but  a  very  general  description  is  unnecessary. 

Some  physical  characteristics  were  common  to  the 
whole  Indian  race  :  straight  black  hair,  tawny  complex- 
ions, high  cheek  bones,, and  sunken  but  bright  black  eyes. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  37 

The  moral  characteristics  of  the  Indians  of  North 
America,  were  no  less  striking  by  their  similarity  than  the 
physical.  Disdain  of  labor, —  contempt  of  females, —  un- 
bounded hospitality  to  strangers. —  ferocity  in  battle, — 
cruelty  to  captives, — respect  for  female  chastity,  and  an 
eternal  remembrance  both  of  benefits  and  injuries  seem  to 
have  been  common  to  all. — Yet  notwithstanding  their 
general  resemblance,  there  were  between  the  different 
tribes  some  striking  differences  both  physical  and  moral :  — 
gome  were  tall,  straight,  and  slender;  —  others  short,  com- 
pact, and  muscular.  The  physiognominical  expression  of 
some  was  always  ferocious,  of  others  mild. —  Amongst 
some,  the  practice  of  adoption  prevailed,  and  enemies 
were  frequently  admitted  as  sons  of  the  tribe  ; — others 
were  never  known  to  spare  an  enemy.  Some  were  in- 
trepid ; —  others  timid:  —  some  detested  falsehood;  — 
others  practiced  it  eternally  :  —  some  were  haughty,  inso- 
lent, and  untractable  ;  —  others  humble,  civil,  and  docile. 

The  Indians  of  New  England  were  less  advanced  in 
civilization  than  the  Iroquois  or  the  Delawarcs.  The  Pe- 
quots  and  Narragansetts  appear  to  have  acquired  the 
greatest  consideration  amongst  tlic  first,  perhaps  in  con- 
sequence of  having  learned  the  value  of  wampum  or 
wampumpeag.* 

Amongst  the  Indians  this  article  was  the  substitute  for 
the  precious  metals,  and  supplied  their  only  circulating 
medium.  The  tribes  which  used  it,  became  wcaltliy  and 
powerful.  At  the  time  of  the  commencement  of  the 
English  settlement,  the  Pequots  and  Narragansetts 
amongst  whom  ii  abounded,  were  growing  comparatively 

*  Small  beads  manufactured  from  the  shells  of  the  quahag,  a  species  of 
clam,  polished,  colored,  and  generally  strung  together  on  strips  of  cloth  called 
belts. — Those  which  were  made  from  the  blue  part  of  the  shell  were  esteemed 
(ho  nio.^t  valuable. 


38  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

into  great  power,  while  other  tribes  who  were  unacquaint- 
ed with  the  uses  to  which  it  could  be  applied,  fell  into 
decay  and  poverty. 

Unless  stimulated  to  industry  by  artificial  excitement, 
by  the  creation  of  new  wants,  and  the  desire  of  comforts 
beyond  the  gratification  of  animal  appetites  only,  man 
would  never  emerge  from  the  savage  state,  he  would  roam 
the  forest  a  naked,  solitary  being  seeking  his  food  by  vio- 
lence, and  his  shelter  in  a  cave  or  a  tree.  It  seems  to  be  a 
disposition  of  Providence,  that  at  some  period  of  his  social 
existence,  propitious  to  the  developement  of  his  powers 
and  capacities,  his  acquired  tastes  should  rouse  him  to 
laborious  action.  Had  America  remained  forever  a  '  seal- 
ed country'  to  Europe,  the  desire  of  wampum  alone  might 
have  elevated  the  Indians  into  merchants  and  navigators. 
Civilization  would  have  followed  the  accumulation  of 
property,  and  laws  would  have  been  established  for  its 
regulation  and  protection.  Whether  the  great  objects, of 
man's  pursuit  be  wampum  or  gold,  the  desire  of  either,  or 
in  other  words,  the  passion  for  the  acquisition  of  property 
would  have  taught  him  the  mode  to  secure  it  when  ac- 
quired. 

The  hospitality  of  the  Indians  was  of  the  most  generous 
and  kindly  character  ;  —  they  would  share  their  food  even 
to  the  last  morsel  with  their  guests,  and  their  wigwams 
were  always  open  to  receive  and  shelter  the  stranger. 
They  discovered  considerable  ingenuity  in  the  simple 
manufacture  of  baskets  and  mats,  and  much  skill  in  secur- 
ing their  game. —  Their  arms  were  bows  and  arrows,  and 
stone  hatchets  or  tomahawks  ;  of  the  use  of  iron  and  the 
metals  generally,  they  were  ignorant. — Their  agriculture 
was  confined  to  the  culture  of  a  species  of  maize,  (denom- 
inated by  the  English,  Indian  corn)  beans,  squashes,  and 
pumpkins,  and  in  the  south  tobacco  was  cultivated  in  large 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  39 

quantities.  They  had  no  beasts  of  draught  and  had 
acquired  none  of  that  knowledge  which  has  imparted  such 
prodigious  productive  power  to  the  agriculture  of  civilized 
man.  They  were  often  in  want  of  food,  and  sometimes 
underwent  the  sufferings  of  famine.  They  generally 
avoided  hills  and  mountains,  and  were  commonly  found 
seated  on  the  waters  connected  with  the  ocean,  the 
bays,  and  tide  rivers.  Some,  allured  by  the  facility  of 
obtaining  fish,  and  wild  fowl,  dwelt  in  the  vicinity 
of  those  small  lakes  (usually  called  ponds)  with  which 
New  England  abounds.  Wild  turkies  and  deer  abounded 
in  the  forests,  and  these,  with  fish  and  vegetables,  were 
their  common  food. 

Amongst  the  Indian  tribes  of  New  England  there  was 
so  little  cohesion,  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  define 
with  precision  their  territorial  limits,  or  to  understand  to 
what  degree  they  were  connected  with,  or  independent  of 
each  other,  or  the  degree  or  extent  of  their  dependence. 
The  enterprise  and  ability  of  the  chief  might  occasionally 
elevate  a  small  tribe  into  consequence  and  power,  and  on 
the  other  hand  his  imbecility  and  vices  might  degrade  a 
powerful  tribe  into  a  feeble  one. 

The  tribes  which,  previously  to  the  arrival  of  the  Eng- 
lish, inhabited  the  region  bounded  by  the  Connecticut 
river  on  the  west,  the  ocean  and  its  waters  on  the  south 
and  the  cast,  and  the  Merrimack  on  the  north,  arc  said* 
to  have  been  the  Pequots,  Narragansetts,  Pokanokets, 
Massachusetts,  and  Pawtuckets  ; — of  these  the  Pequots 
were  the  most  powerful  ;  they  had  not  sufl^ered  from  pesti- 
lence, and  had  learned  the  use  of  wampum.  Their  num- 
bers are  said  (by  Roger  Williams,)  to  have  amounted  to 
thirty  thousand  souls,  and  Gookin  estimates  their  warriors 

•  Py  Gookin. 


40  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

at  four  thousand.  (They  must  however  have  included  the 
Mohegans  with  the  Pequots.)  The  seat  of  their  chief 
sachem  was  at  Groton,  [near  New  London]  and  he  was 
acknowledged  as  chief  by  the  Sagamores  of  that  part  of 
Long  Island  opposite  the  Connecticut  river,  by  the  Mohe- 
gans, and  by  a  part  of  the  Nipmucks.  On  the  continent 
his  dominion  extended  from  a  place  called  Weckapage, 
about  four  miles  to  the  eastward  of  Pawcatuck  river,  which 
bounds  Rhode  Island  on  the  southwest;  north  to  the  Nip- 
muck  country,  (if  the  Mohegans  are  to  be  considered  as 
within  their  limits.)  Although  the  historians  generally 
speak  of  the  Mohegans  as  distinct  from  the  Pequots,  yet 
Dr  Trumbull,  the  modern  historian  of  Connecticut,  sup- 
poses they  were  a  part  of  the  Pequot  nation,  deriving  their 
distinctive  appellation  from  the  territory  on  which  they 
dwelt.  They  were  certainly  of  the  Pequot  race.  Their 
sachem  Uncas  was  of  the  royal  family  of  the  Pequots,  and 
his  wife  was  the  daughter  of  Tatobam,  a  Pequot  sachem. 
If  then  the  Pequots  and  Mohegans  are  to  be  considered  as 
one  nation,  the  boundary  was  the  north  line  of  Connecti- 
cut, for  all  the  Nipmucks  south  of  that  line  were  tributary 
to  the  Mohegans  and  their  dominion  comprised  the  present 
counties  of  New  London,  Windham  and  Tolland,  and  a 
small  part  of  Rhode  Island. 

Proud,  revengeful,  and  cruel,  this  tribe  was  feared  and 
detested  by  all  their  neighbors,  and  particularly  by  the 
Narragansetts,  with  whom  they  often  waged  war.  Over  the 
kindred  Mohegans  they  domineered  with  great  insolence. 
The  Pequot  was  the  only  tribe  in  New  England  which  ex- 
ercised those  horrid  cruelties  on  their  captives  which  so 
often  shock  us  in  Indian  history. 

When  the  English  settled  on  Connecticut  river,  Uncas 
was  in  rebellion  against  Sassacus,  the  chief  sachem  of  the 
Pequots,  to  whom  he  had  been  tributary.     This  proud  and 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 


41 


powerful  sachem  held  twentysix  other  sachems  in  sub- 
jection and  dependence,  and  the  western  Niantics  who  in- 
habited a  part  of  Lyme  on  the  eastern  side  of  Connecti- 
cut river  were  his  confederates.  His  immediate  and 
undisputed  dominion  extended  over  New  London,  Groton 
and  Stonington,  and  a  part  of  Westerley  in  Rhode  Island. 
The  harbor  of  New  London  bore  the  name  of  the  tribe, 
and  they  had  another  harbor  at  the  mouth  of  Mystic 
river.  On  a  commanding  eminence  in  Groton,  which  pre- 
sents one  of  the  most  magnificent  views  in  North  Ameri- 
ca, they  had  constructed  a  large  fortress,  and  surrounded 
it  with  a  palisade.  Here  Sassacus  resided.  Another  for- 
tress of  considerable  strength  had  been  erected  on  Mys- 
tic river. 

It  was  the  fortune  of  the  English  to  encounter  this  tribe 
early,  and  their  power  and  haughtiness  occasioned  their 
overthrow.  They  had  incurred  the  deadly  hatred  of 
those  whom  Uncas  governed,  and  the  unconquerable 
jealousy  of  the  Narragansetts,  and  when  the  English,  pro- 
voked to  hostilities  by  their  insolence  and  cruelties,  re- 
solved to  exterminate  them,  they  found  the  Mohegans  and 
Narragansetts  willing  and  useful  allies.  The  war  with 
the  English  terminated  in  their  utter  overthrow,  and  the 
Pequot  nation  became  extinct.  A  remnant  under  Sassa- 
cus fled  to  the  west  and  threw  themselves  on  the  mercy 
of  the  Mohawks,  but  they  found  no  mercy  there,  and 
Sassacus  was  beheaded.  The  remainder  mingled  with  the 
Mohegans  and  Narragansetts,  and  lost  their  distinctive 
character. 

The  Narragansetts  were  a  powerful  tribe,  who  inhabit- 
ed nearly  all  that  territory  which  afterwards  formed  the 
colony  of  Rhode  Island.  They  were  bounded  by  the 
Pequots  on  the  west,  the  Pokanokets  on  the  east  and  north- 
east, the  Nipmucks  on  the  north,  and  the  ocean  on  the 
6 


42  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

south.  Their  dominion  extended  over  all  the  islands  in 
the  Narragansett  Bay,  and  the  sagamores  of  a  part  of  Long 
Island,  Manisses,  (now  Block  Island)  Cawesit,  Niantick, 
and  some  others  were  their  tributaries.  Their  boundary 
commencing  at  Weckapage  on  the  southwest,  ran  north- 
erly about  the  distance  of  five  miles  from  the  present  line 
of  Connecticut,  until  it  reached  the  Nipmuck  country,  a 
little  south  of  the  present  north  line  of  Rhode  Island,  and 
then  turning  east  reached  the  Narragansett  river  (now 
called  Seekonk  and  Providence  river,)  and  was  bounded 
by  that  river  until  it  joined  the  Bay,  and  extended  across 
the  bay  including  the  islands.  The  Pokanokets  however 
laid  some  claim  to  Aquedneck  (Rhode  Island.) 

The  principal  seats  of  the  chief  sachem  of  the  Narra- 
gansett tribes  were  on  the  bay,  and  the  island  of  Conan- 
icut. 

The  tribes  of  Narragansett  could  raise  five  thousand 
warriors,  and  being  situated  between  the  Pequots  and  Po- 
kanokets, were  engaged  in  frequent  and  deadly  hostilities 
wi*h  both,  as  well  as  with  the  Massachusetts. 

The  Narragansetts  were  a  noble  race.  Caunonicus, 
their  chief  sachem,  was  princely  in  his  donations.  He 
gave  to  Roger  Williams  the  whole  county  of  Providence 
and  the  island  of  Prudence  ;  and  at  his  intercession,  to 
the  followers  of  Mrs  Hutchinson  the  island  of  Rhode  Is- 
land. 

Miantonimo,  his  nephew,  was  a  hero.  To  their  friends 
their  kindness  and  generosity  had  no  limits,  and  although 
they  utterly  rejected  the  christian  religion,  their  extraor- 
dinary attachment  to  Mr  Williams  induced  them  to  endure 
his  monthly  preaching. 

This  tribe  had  suffered  but  little  from  the  pestilence, 
and  they  would  have  subdued  both  the  Pokanokets  and  the 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  43 

Massachusetts  had  it  not  been  for  their  fears  of  the  Pequots 
at  first,  and  then  of  the  English. 

The  Narragansetts  inhabited  a  country  peculiarly  adapt- 
ed to  their  wants,  abounding  in  fish  and  fowl  and  streams 
and  lakes,  and  in  the  vicinity  of  the  salt  water  and  of  a 
sea  shore  abounding  in  shell  fish,  on  which  during  certain 
seasons  they  lived,  and  on  a  soil  favorable  to  the  culture 
of  all  the  vegetables  known  in  their  simple  agriculture. 

They  seldom  svTered  from  the   want  of  food,  and   the 

J  l.V 

plenteousness  of  ti;eir  living  enabled  them  to  shew  more 
hospitality  than  any  of  the  other  tribes  of  New  England. 
In  their  huts  the  stranger  had  the  place  of  honor  and  the 
best  of  their  fare. 

When  the  English  arrived,  Caunonicus  exercised  the 
chief  authority  of  the  country,  but  it  is  supposed  that  he 
acted  in  the  capacity  of  regent  during  the  minority  of  his 
nephew  Myantonimo,  but  when  Myantonimo  came  of  age, 
they  seemed  to  exercise  a  concurrent  power  and  never 
diflfered  with  each  other. 

The  Pequots  and  Narragansetts  lived  more  compactly 
than  the  other  tribes.  Their  principal  sachems  were  more 
absolute,  and  the  authority  of  the  sagamores  or  petty 
sachems  was  less,  and  they  seldom  suffered  from  the  depre- 
dations of  the  Mohawks  or  Maquas,  who  were  the  terror 
of  all  the  other  Indians  of  New  England,  and  who  were 
no  less  hostile  to  them  than  the  others,  but  their  excur- 
sions seldom  extended  so  far  as  the  country  of  the  Narra- 
gansetts. 

All  the  tribes  who  inhabited  that  region  comprised 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  New  Plymouth  as  well  as  Cape- 
wack  or  Nope  (Martha's  Vineyard,)  and  Nantucket  were 
known  by  the  general  name  of  Pokanokets,  and  under  this 
term  many  small  tribes  were  included.  The  Wampanoags 
inhabited  the  county  now  called  Bristol  in  Rhode  Island ; 


44  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

these  were  the  particular  tribe  of  Massasoiet,  and  after- 
wards of  his  son  Metacomet  (or  Philip ;)  the  number  of 
their  warriors  did  not  exceed  sixty  when  the  English  ar- 
rived. The  Pocassetts  inhabited  Swanzey,  Somerset,  part 
of  Rehoboth  and  Tiverton  ;  the  sagamore  of  this  tribe 
was  Corbitant,  who  was  succeeded  by  a  female,  the  unfor- 
tunate Weetamore.  The  Saconets  were  the  aboriginals 
of  Little  Compton;  they  also  in  Philip's  war  were  govern- 
ed by  a  female  sachem,  Awashonks.  "j^^e  Namaskets  were 
seated  at  Middleborough  ;  the  Nausites  at  Eastham  on 
Cape  Cod;  the  Mattachees  at  Barnstable  ;  the  Monamoys 
at  Chatham ;  the  Saukatucketts  at  Mashpee  ;  the  Nob- 
squassetts  at  Yarmouth. 

All  these  tribes  were  subordinate  to  Massasoiet  ;  his  do- 
minion also  extended  into  the  Nipmuck  country,  and  most 
of  the  small  tribes  in  that  region  acknowledged  him  as  a 
superior :  after  the  ravages  of  the  deadly  pestilence  of 
1612,  by  which  the  Massachusetts  were  nearly  destroyed, 
the  remainder  acknowledged  their  dependence  on  him. 
Obtakiest  a  sachem  within  whose  territory  Boston  was 
situated,  informed  the  English  that  Massasoiet  was  his  su- 
perior. 

The  desolation  of  the  pestilence  was  horrible  in  the 
country  of  Pokanoket.  Nearly  the  whole  of  the  present 
counties  of  Plymouth  and  Bristol  were  depopulated  ;  a  few 
of  the  Namasketts,  Santuckets  and  Pocassetts  escaped. 
Cape  Cod,  Martha's  Vineyard,  and  Nantucket,  suffered 
less. 

Previous  to  the  pestilence,  the  Pokanokets  had  been  a 
powerful  people,  and  could  raise  three  thousand  warriors. 
They  were  generally  confederated  with  the  Massachusetts, 
and  by  this  union  they  were  able  to  resist  the  Narragan- 
setts.  At  the  period  of  the  English  settlement,  however, 
the  number  of  their  warriors  had  been  reduced  to  five 
hundred,  so  much  had  the  country  been  depopulated. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  45 

They  seemed  to  have  exercised  a  powerful  influence 
over  the  Nipmucks,  and  in  Philip's  war  he  frequently  fled 
there,  when  hard  pressed  by  the  English  in  his  own 
country. 

The  Massachusetts  dwelt  chiefly  about  the  bay  from 
which  they  took  their  name.  Once  a  powerful  tribe  and 
able  to  raise  three  thousand  warriors,  so  much  had  the 
pestilence  reduced  them,  that  it  is  doubtful  whether  in 
1630  they  could  have  raised  an  hundred.  Their  sachem 
was  acknowledged  as  chief  by  the  tribes  of  Wessagussett,* 
Punkapaog,f  Nonantam,J  Nashua,§  and  Neponsit,||  and  a 
part  of  the  Nipmucks.  The  Massachusetts  were  nearly 
exterminated  by  the  pestilence.  Their  territory  was 
bounded  by  that  of  Massasoiet  on  the  south,  the  Nipmucks 
on  the  west,  by  the  bay  on  the  east,  and  by  the  Pawtuck- 
ets  on  the  north  and  northeast.  With  their  northern  neigh- 
bors the  Pawtuckets,  as  well  as  their  southern  the  Pokano- 
kets,  they  maintained  a  steady  peace,  and  after  the  desola- 
tion of  the  pestilence,  by  acknowledging  the  superiority 
of  Massasoiet,  wisely  united  themselves  by  closer  ties 
with  the  last.  Notwithstanding  this  union,  had  not  the 
Narragansetts  been  apprehensive  of  the  Pequots,  they 
could  scarcely  have  maintained  their  independence. 

The  territory  of  the  Pawtuckets  extended  from  Salem 
on  the  south,  to  the  north  of  the  river  Merrimack,  as  far 
as  Piscataway,  (Portsmouth)  and  to  the  Nipmuck  country 
on  the  west,  being  bounded  by  the  ocean  on  the  east, 
comprising  the  county  of  Essex,  a  part  of  Middlesex,  and 
a  part  of  New  Hampshire,  and  including  the  Penacooks,ir 
Agawams,**Naumkeags,f  f  Piscataways,{J  Accomintas,§§ 
and  others. —  These  tribes  once  could  have  raised  for  war 

*  Weymouth.         t  Stoughton.         t  Newton.         §  Lancaster.         ||'Quincy. 

TI  On  the  Merrimack  in  New  Hampshire.        **  At  Ipswich.        tt  At  Salem. 

It  At  Portsmouth.         §§  In  Maine. 


46  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

three  thousand  men  but  the  pestilence  fell  upon  them  and 
they  were  nearly  exterminated.  |||| 

West  of  the  Massachusetts  and  Pawtuckets,  and  north 
of  the  Pokanokets,  Narragansetts,  and  Mohegans  over  that 
part  of  the  territory  of  the  state  of  Massachusetts  which 
includes  the  west  part  of  the  county  of  Middlesex,  and 
the  whole  of  the  county  of  Worcester  extending  north 
into  New  Hampshire,  and  south  into  Connecticut  and 
Rhode  Island  were  thinly  scattered  several  hordes  or  tribes 
called  Nipmucks.  Whether  they  received  this  general 
name  by  reason  of  a  common  origin,  from  the  use  of  a 
common  dialect,  or  from  the  country  which  they  occupied 
is  uncertain.  They  do  not  appear  from  any  accounts 
which  have  reached  us  to  have  been  in  any  degree  subject 
to  the  control  of  a  common  sachem  ;  but  all  were  under 
a  certain  degree  of  subjection,  and  paid  tribute  to  the 
Narragansetts,  Pokanokets,  and  Mohegans.  While  the 
Massachusetts  flourished  they  were  principally  under  their 
control.  They  were  collected  in  small  settlements  one  of 
which  was  at  Manchage,*  another  at  Quaboag,f  another 
at  Chabakongkomen,J  another  at  Maanexit,§  another  at 
Q,uantiGset,||  another  at  Wabquusset.lT 

The  Nipmucks  were  collected  in  families  rather  than 
tribes,  and  were  constantly  exposed  to  the  alternate  and 
fluctuating  dominion  of  their  more  powerful  neighbors. 
No  principle  of  unity,  or  sense  of  common  dangers,  or 
common  advantages  had  as  yet  combined  them,  and 
in  all  probability  had  not  the  English  arrived,  they 
would  eventually  have  been  incorporated  with  the  most 

nil  Godkin  estimates  the  whole  number  at  250. 
*  At  Oxford  in  1674,  about  60  souls.         t  Brookfield.         t  Dudley  in  1674, 
about  45  souls.         §   In  Woodstock  containing   in  1674,  100  souls.         ||  Also 
in  Woodstock.        U  Also  in  Woodstock,  souls  150. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  47 

powerful  of  the  surrounding  tribes,  and  to  such  a  union 
they  would  have  been  the  more  easily  induced,  being 
constantly  subjected  to  the  hostile  incursions  of  the 
Mohawks,  a  powerful  and  warlike  tribe,  the  terror  of  the 
New  England  Indians.  The  Mohawks  were  seated  on 
the  Mohawk  river,  in  the  State  of  J\ew  York,  and  all 
the  tribes  between  the  Connecticut  and  the  Hudson, 
were  their  tributaries.  All  the  Nipmucks  in  Connecti- 
cut were  finally  subjected  by  Uncas,  and  annexed  to 
his  sachemdom.  The  whole  number  of  the  Nipmucks  was 
small,  perhaps  but  little  more  than  a  thousand. 

On  Connecticut  river  at  the  places  now  called  Hadley 
and  Springfield,  there  were  two  small  tribes  probably  of 
the  same  race,  for  the  sachem  of  the  Springfield  tribe  at 
the  period  of  Philip's  war,  was  the  father  of  the  sachem 
of  the  Hadley  tribe. 

That  part  of  Massachusetts  west  of  the  Connecticut 
river  was  so  near  the  Mohawks,  that  it  was  avoided  by  all 
the  tribes  of  New  England,  and  almost  uninhabited  :  — 
in  the  present  county  of  Berkshire,  there  was  not  a  set- 
tlement. 

On  the  lower  part  of  the  Connecticut  river,  besides  the 
Nehanticks  already  mentioned,  the  Indians  were  numerous, 
but  they  were  all  divided  into  petty  tribes,  and  had  not 
acquired  much  power  or  consideration.  They  were 
numerous  in  Windsor,  Hartford,  Weathersfield,  and  Mid- 
dletown.  Within  the  limits  of  Windsor  there  were  ten 
distinct  tribes.  In  East  Hartford,  east  of  the  Connecticut, 
the  Podunks  could  muster  two  hundred  warriors. 

Sowheag  a  sachem  of  some  reputation  resided  at  Matta- 
besick,  (now  Middletown,)  where  he  had  constructed  a 
strong  fortress.  His  domain  embraced  both  sides  of  the 
river,  and  on  the  north  included  Pyquag  (now  Wethers- 
field)  which  was  held  under  him  by  the  sagamore  Sequin. 


48  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

The  Wongungs  inhabited  Chatham. 

There  was  a  considerable  tribe  at  Machemoodus  (East 
Haddan.) 

The  Nehanticks  as  already  stated  inhabited  Lyme. 

At  some  distance  from  the  river  on  the  west,  the  tribes 
were  numerous,  but  not  powerful.  They  were  found  at 
Sunsbury,  and  New  Hartford,  Tunxis,  (Farmington)  a 
small  tribe  a  Menunkatuck  (Guilford)  under  a  squaw 
sachem  ;  at  Branford  and  East  Haven,  there  was  another, 
at  Wopowage  (Milford)  they  were  in  great  numbers  and 
had  constructed  a  fortress  to  resist  the  Mohawks.  In 
Derby  were  two  tribes,  one  at  Paugesset,  and  one  at  Nau- 
gatuck.  At  Stratford  they  were  numerous,  and  although 
they  had  suffered  severely  from  the  Mohawks,  they  could  at 
the  time  the  English  settled  Quinipiack  (New  Haven)  bring 
out  three  hundred  warriors.  Two  or  three  tribes  inhabited 
Stamford,  and  there  were  many  in  Greenwich.  In  Nor- 
walk  were  two  small  tribes.  In  Woodbury  they  were  nu- 
merous. Dr  Trumbull  estimates  these  various  tribes  at 
five  thousand  souls,  and  allows  them  a  thousand  warriors, 
and  he  thinks  their  whole  numbers  within  the  limits  of 
Connecticut  at  the  time  the  English  commenced  their 
settlements  were  not  less  than  sixteen  thousand,  and  prob- 
ably twenty  thousand,  and  this  is  certainly  far  under  the 
truth,  if  the  estimate  of  the  numbers  of  the  Pequots  be 
correct.  At  any  rate  Connecticut  was  more  densely  pop- 
ulated with  Indians  than  any  other  territory  of  the  same 
extent  in  North  America,  north  of  Mexico. 

All  the  Indians  in  Connecticut  with  the  exception  of  the 
Pequots  and  Mohegans,  were  tributary  to  the  Mohawks. 
'  Two  old  Mohawks  (says  Dr  Trumbull,)  every  year  or  two, 
might  be  seen  issuing  their  orders  and  collecting  their 
tribute,  with  as  much  authority  and  haughtiness  as  a 
Roman  Dictator.' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  49 

If  the  payment  of  the  tribute  was  neglected  or  refused, 
the  country  inhabited  by  these  unfortunate  tribes  was 
ravaged  and  laid  waste,  and  they  were  forced  into  captiv- 
ity, or  put  to  death.  The  ferocious  Mohawks  would  pur- 
sue their  timid  victims  even  into  the  houses  of  the  English, 
where  they  fled  for  protection,  yelling  out  '  we  are  come, 
we  are  come  to  suck  your  blood,'  and  oftentimes  were  the 
hearths  of  the  English  covered  with  the  blood  of  their 
Indian  neighbors  butchered  in  their  presence.  The 
Mohawks  however  were  never  known  to  molest  the  Eng- 
lish, and  they  religiously  abstained  from  forcing  their 
doors,  even  if  they  had  been  closed  for  the  protection  of 
their  tributaries. 

From  the  Indians  on  Connecticut  river,  the  English  ex- 
perienced but  little  trouble,  for  so  great  was  their  terror 
of  the  Mohawks,  who  were  their  unrelenting  and  dreaded 
enemies,  that  they  sought  the  friendship  of  the  English 
as  their  only  hope. 

The  Mohawks  were  as  much  dreaded  by  all  the  tribes 
of  the  Massachusetts,  the  Pawtuckets  and  the  Nipmucks, 
as  they  were  by  the  Indians  of  Connecticut  river.  Four 
or  five  Mohawks  would  frighten  whole  bodies  of  them 
from  their  habitations  and  cornfields,  into  their  fortresses, 
from  whence  they  durst  not  come  out  to  their  labors. 
Nothing  saved  them  from  famine  frequently,  but  the  pro- 
visions of  the  English.  They  were  afraid  to  visit  their 
usual  places  of  fishing  and  hunting,  or  even  to  go  into  the 
woods  to  gather  nuts  and  roots  ;  and  to  subsist  themselves 
they  were  obliged  to  labor  for  the  English. 

The  Mohawks  like  the  Romans  made  war  the  business 
of  their  lives.  In  the  Spring  of  each  year,  parties  of  fifty 
would  collect  and  march  forth  in  different  directions  each 
under  its  own  leader.  When  near  the  places  which 
they  intended  to  despoil,  they  established  a  secret  ren- 
7 


50  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLOJMY. 

dezvous  in  the  woods,  and  then  leaving  some  of  their 
number  at  the  rendezvous,  the  remainder  would  divide 
into  small  parties  of  four  or  five,  and  place  themselves  in 
ambush  near  the  paths  which  led  by  the  habitations  of 
their  enemies,  from  those  secret  places  they  would  shoot 
down,  and  rushing  from  their  concealment,  strip  and  scalp 
them  and  rifle  their  habitations.  In  some  of  their  ec- 
centric moods,  emotions  of  kindness  would  steal  into 
their  hearts,  and  they  would  preserve  the  younger  cap- 
tives, treat  them  humanely,  and  adopt  them  into  the 
tribe  ;  but  in  general  they  spared  none  except  the  praying 
Indians,  whom  they  seemed  to  consider  as  under  the 
qualified  protection  of  the  English.  They  were  never 
known  to  injure  an  Englishman  either  in  person  or  pro- 
perty. The  English  frequently  met  them  in  the  woods 
when  they  were  defenceless,  and  the  Indians  armed,  but 
never  received  from  them  the  slightest  insult. 

Such  was  the  situation,  and  such  the  circumstances  of 
the  Indian  tribes  which  inhabited  the  territory  now 
comprised  within  the  limits  of  the  states  of  Massachusetts, 
Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  and  a  part  of  New  Hampshire, 
when  the  English  commenced  the  settlement  of  Plymouth. 
The  country  which  they  first  occupied  was  sandy  and 
barren,  but  fortunate  was  it  for  them  that  fate  had  thrown 
them  upon  a  spot  so  little  inviting  :  —  depopulated  by  the 
pestilence,  no  enemies  contended  with  them  for  its  pos- 
session. The  neighboring  tribes  of  the  Pokarioketts 
and  Massachusetts,  weakened  as  they  were  by  the  most 
dreadful  of  all  calamities,  and  fearful  of  their  more 
powerful  Indian  neighbors,  were  anxious  to  maintain  a 
firm  peace  with  the  English. 

The  pious  would  say  that  the  hand  of  Heaven  was  visi- 
ble in  all  the  circumstances  which  preceded  and  attended 
the  introduction  of  the  arts,  sciences,  knowledge,  learning, 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  51 

and  religion  of  Europe  into  this  part  of  the  western  wilder- 
ness, first  by  inflicting  a  desolating  and  deadly  disease  on 
the  Indians,  and  then  by  guiding  the  English  to  the  very 
spot  which  had  been  the  theatre  of  its  ravages,  and  to  the 
vicinage  of  a  people  who  from  unavoidable  calamities 
were  so  circumstanced  as  to  be  compelled  to  court  their 
friendship,  and  to  deprecate  their  hostility. 


(       52        ) 


CHAPTER  V. 


John  Carver  elected  the  first  Governor. — Expedition  into  the  Country. — A  Party 
sail  up  the  Bay. — Birth  of  Peregrine  White,  the  first  born  of  New  England. — 
Pilgrims  Deliberate  respecting  their  Place  of  Settlement. — Expedition  sent 
out  again  to  Explore  the  Coast. — First  Encounter  with  the  Natives. — Reach 
Plymouth  Harbor,  and  Explore  the  Country. — Resolve  to  Lay  out  a  Town 
at  Patuxet  or  Apaum. — Pilgrims  Land  and  call  the  place  Plymouth,  and  erect 
Houses. — Miles  Standish  chosen  Commander  of  the  Military  Force — Visit 
of  Samoset. — Visit  of  Squanto. — Massasoiet,  the  Chief  Sachem  of  the  Coun- 
try, and  his  Warriors,  visit  them. — A  treaty  of  Peace  and  Amity  concluded 
with  Massasoiet. — Carver  confirmed  as  Governor  for  a  year. — Billington's 
offence  and  punishment. — Death  and  character  of  Gov.  Carver. —  State  of  the 
Colony. 

After  the  pilgrims  had  signed  the  compact  and  had 
submitted  themselves  to  a  government,  they  proceeded  to 
their  first  political  act  and  unanimously  elected  John  Car- 
ver, governor,  who  was  to  hold  the  office  one  year. 

The  legislative  and  judicial  power  was  in  the  whole 
body,  and  the  governor  was  the  sole  executive  officer  ;  no 
oath  of  office  was  required,  and  he  entered  upon  his  offi- 
cial duties  without  ceremony  or  parade. 

No  change  was  made  in  the  government,  regulation  and 
discipline  of  the  church,  which  remained  as  it  had  been 
when  under  the  immediate  superintendence  and  instruction 
of  Robinson. 

The  master  of  the  ship  and  the  crew,  continuing  their 
importunities,  the  pilgrims  resolved  to  commence  their 
settlement  without  delay.  Sixteen  men  offered  to  go  on 
shore,  and  after  procuring  wood   to  e.vamine  the  country. 


'  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  53 

They  found  it  to  be  sandy,  but  well  wooded,  the  growth 
being  oak,  pine,  sassafras,  juniper,  birch,  holly,  ash  and 
walnut ;  sea-fowl  and  fish  abounded  in  the  waters,  but 
they  could  find  neither  houses,  fresh  water,  nor  inhabit- 
ants. On  the  13th,  the  women  were  sent  on  shore,  attended 
by  a  guard,  to  wash  the  clothes  ;  the  weather  was  exces- 
sively cold,  and  the  men  being  compelled  to  wade  in  the 
water,  laid  the  foundation  of  diseases,  which  afterwards 
proved  mortal  to  many.  Their  shallop  needing  consider- 
able repairs,  they  resolved  on  an  excursion  into  the  coun- 
try. For  this  purpose  sixteen  men  completely  armed,  were 
placed  under  the  command  of  Captain  Miles  Standish, 
with  William  Bradford,  Stephen  Hopkins,  and  Edward 
Tilly  for  a  council  of  war,  who  after  being  instructed,  were 
reluctantly  permitted  to  go  forth,  (Nov.  15.)  After  march- 
ing about  a  mile  in  a  southern  direction,  they  saw  five 
Indians,  who  fled  with  precipitation.  Night  overtaking  the 
English,  they  discontinued  the  pursuit,  and  rested.  On 
the  next  morning  they  followed  the  trace  about  ten  miles, 
but  being  fatigued  with  the  weight  of  their  armor,  and 
laboring  under  debility  arising  from  scurvy,  consequent 
to  their  long  voyage,  they  halted  near  a  spring  from  which 
they  quaffed  the  first  refreshing  draught  of  American 
water.  Continuing  their  journey,  they  discovered  an  In- 
dian burial-place,  and  in  one  of  the  graves  they  found  a 
mortar,  an  earthen  pot,  a  bow,  with  arrows  and  other  arti- 
cles which  they  replaced  with  great  care  ;  they  also  dis- 
covered what  they  supposed  to  be  the  remains  of  a  fortifi- 
cation. Finding  a  hole  in  the  ground,  covered  with  sand, 
and  lined  with  bark,  containing  some  maize  or  Indian 
corn  in  ears, —  after  a  discussion  on  the  morality  of  the 
act,  they  resolved  to  take  the  corn.  Had  the  company 
been  perishing  with  hunger,  this  appropriation  of  the 
property    of    others    might    have    been    justified.       As 


54  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

it  was,  it  was  inexcusable  ;  the  corn  was  not  a  waif;  every 
necessary  precaution  had  been  taken  by  the  savage  owner 
to  secure  it.  The  excuse  which  some  of  their  fanatical 
brethren  would  have  made  '  that  the  Lord  had  given  them 
the  heathen  for  an  inheritance,  and  a  spoil,'  was  wanting 
to  them,  for  they  compromised  with  their  consciences  by 
resolving  upon  the  spot  that  they  would  make  compensa- 
tion to  the  owners  whenever  they  should  discover  them, 
and  fortunately  for  their  moral  reputation,  six  months 
afterwaruo  they  carried  that  resolution  into  effect,  and 
fully  satisfied  the  owners  for  this  and  smoe  other  corn  which 
they  had  taken.  The  next  day,  with  much  difficulty 
they  reached  the  ship,  and  delivered  the  corn  into  the 
common  store ;  this  act,  however,  was  probably  the  means 
of  saving  the  colony  from  starvation,  for  the  grain  was  all 
saved  for  planting,  and  from  its  product  they  derived  at 
one  time  their  sole  support.  Seventeen  days  elapsed  be- 
fore the  shallop  could  be  prepared  for  sea,  and  they  then 
undertook  further  discoveries.  Jones  the  captain,  with 
ten  of  the  crew,  and  twentyfour  of  the  company,  sailed 
up  the  bay  during  a  high  wind  and  a  rough  sea.  The 
shallop  soon  anchored  and  landed  part  of  the  company, 
who  were  anxious  to  proceed.  The  weather  was  exces- 
sively cold,  and  it  snowed,  yet  these  hardy  men  braved  the 
inclemency  of  the  elements  unsheltered.  The  next  day 
they  went  on  board,  and  soon  discovered  a  harbor,  fit 
only,  however,  for  boats,  which  they  called  Cold  Harbor, 
(the  mouth  of  Paomet  Creek,  between  Truro  and  Well- 
fleet.)  They  shot  some  sea-fowl,  which  they  devoured 
with  '  soldiers'  stomachs,'  and  again  went  in  pursuit  of 
corn,  which,  although  the  ground  was  covered  with  snow, 
they  fortunately  discovered,  as  sand  was  heaped  over  the 
holes  where  it  was  concealed ;  they  opened  the  frozen 
ground  with  their  swords,  and  obtained  about  ten  bushels 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  55 

and  some  beans.  These  pious  men  referred  everything  to 
Providence,  and  they  never  doubted  but  that  it  was  the 
special  interposition  of  the  Almighty  which  furnished  them 
with  this  additional  supply,  without  which,  they  supposed 
they  could  not  have  subsisted. 

The  captain  returned  to  the  ship  with  the  shallop,  tak- 
ing the  corn.  Fifteen  of  the  men  went  with  him  —  the 
others  remained. 

Those  who  remained  marched  into  the  woods,  and  dis- 
covered a  grave  covered  with  boards,  and  upon  opening 
it,  they  found  mats  and  Indian  ornaments,  and  between 
the  mats,  bowls,  trays,  and  dishes  ;  under  a  new  mat  they 
found  two  bundles,  one  of  which  contained  a  great  quan- 
tity of  fine  red  powder,  covering  the  bones  and  skull  of  a 
man.  The  skull  was  covered  with  fine  yellow  hair.  In 
this  bundle  were  a  knife,  packneedle,  a  sailor's  canvass 
frock,  and  a  pair  of  cloth  breeches,  and  some  iron  arti- 
cles.* The  other  bundle  contained  the  bones  and  head  of 
a  little  child,  surrounded  with  the  same  kind  of  red  pow- 
der, and  bound  round  with  strings  of  wampum,  and  a  small 
bow.  Two  of  the  sailors  discovered  for  the  first  time  two 
Indian  houses,  (or  wigwams.)  They  were  formed  by  plac- 
ing one  end  of  young  saplings  in  the  ground  and  bending 
them  over,  and  securing  the  other  ends,  and  covering  them 
with  mats;  —  in  shape  resembling  a  cone,  a  hole  being 
left  open  at  the  top  (for  the  smoke  to  escape,)  which  was 
occasionally  covered  with  a  mat ;  mats  also  served  for 
doors  and  beds.  These  wigwams  were  matted  within  and 
without. 

The  furniture  of  the  wigwams  consisted  of  wooden 
bowls,  trays  and  dishes,  earthen   pots,  and   hand  baskets 

*  These  remains  were  probably  those  of  a  European  sailor ; — the  yellow 
hair,  knife,  needle,  frock,  &c,  seem  to  prove  it. 


56  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

made  of  crab  shells ,  wrought  together.  The  ornaments 
were  deer's  feet  and  horns,  and  eagle's  claws. 

They  found  in  some  of  the  baskets  parched  acorns  and 
peices  of  fish,  and  some  venison  in  a  hollow  tree. 

The  material  of  these  manufactures,  such  as  flag,  sedge, 
and  bulrushes  lay  scattered  about  the  wigwams.  Some  of 
the  best  things  they  took  !  The  shallop  arriving,  they  re- 
turned in  her  to  the  ship.  While  they  were  absent,  the 
wife  of  William  White  had  borne  a  son,  who  received  the 
name  of  Peregrine,*  the  first  child  which  was  born  in 
New  England.! 

At  this  time  the  pilgrims  held  a  solemn  consultation 
respecting  their  final  settlement.  Some  were  favorable 
to  a  settlement  at  Cold  Harbor,  because  the  ground  was 
prepared  for  the  cultivation  of  Indian  corn,  and  although 
the  harbor  would  admit  nothing  but  boats,  yet  it  seemed 
to  offer  some  advantages  both  for  whale  and  cod  fishing. 

*  William  White  died  in  the  course  of  the  ensuing  spring.  His  widow, 
Susanna,  married  the  celebrated  Edward  Winslow,  who  was  the  third  Governor 
of  the  Colony.  (This  marriage  was  solemnized  May  12,  1621,  being  the  first 
in  the  Colony.)  Peregrine  White  died  at  Marshfield  near  Plymouth,  July  20th, 
1704,  having  outlived  the  existence  of  the  colony  as  a  separate  government. 
The  followmg  account  taken  from  the  '  Boston  News-Letter,'  being  the  15th 
number  of  the  first  newspaper  that  was  printed  in  North  America,  is  given  en- 
tire. 

'  Marshfield,  July  22d.  Capt.  Peregrine  White,  of  this  town,  aged  eighty- 
three  years  and  eight  months,  died  here  the  20th  inst.  He  was  vigorous,  and 
of  a  comely  aspect  to  the  last;  was  the  son  of  William  White  and  Susanna  his 
wife,  born  on  board  the  May  Flower,  captain  Jones,  commander,  in  Cape  Cod 
Harbor,  1620,  the  first  Englishman  born  in  New  England.  Although  he  was, 
in  the  former  part  of  his  life,  extravagant,  yet  he  was  much  reformed  in  his  last 
years,  and  died  hopefully.' 

t  Edward  Thompson,  a  servant  of  Mr  White,  died  on  the  4th  of  December, 
being  the  first  death  since  the  arrival  of  the  Pilgrims.  On  the  6th^  Jasper  Car- 
ver, a  son  of  the  governor,  died.  On  the  7th,  Mrs  Dorothy  Bradford,  wife  of 
Mr  Bradford,  accidentally  fell  overboard  and  was  drowned ;  and  on  the  8th 
James  Chilton  died. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  57 

The  place  was  healthful,  secure,  and  defensible.  But  the 
reasons  which  were  mainly  urged  in  favor  of  this  measure, 
were  the  inclemency  of  the  season,  the  bad  health  of  the 
company,  (most  of  them  being  afflicted  with  defluxions 
and  coughs,)  and  the  danger. of  exploring  the  other  parts 
of  the  coast  in  a  season  so  inclement. 

Some  insisted  that  they  should  proceed  about  twenty 
leagues  further,  to  a  place  called  Agawam,  (now  Ipswich 
in  Massachusetts)  a  harbor  which  was  known  to  fishermen 
who  had  been  on  the  coast,  but  upon  the  suggestion  of 
Robin  Coppin  who  informed  them  that  there  was  a  large 
navigable  river  and  a  good  harbor  across  the  bay  to  the 
westward  over  against  Cape  Cod,  and  not  more  than  eight 
leagues  distant,  they  were  induced  once  more  to  send  out 
the  shallop  for  the  purpose  of  exploring  the  coast  around 
the  bay. 

On  the  6th  day  of  December,  Governor  Carver,  Mr 
Bradford,  Mr  Winslow,  Captain  Standish,  Mr  Howland, 
Mr  Warren,  Mr  Hopkins,  Mr  Edward  Tilly,  Mr  John  Tilly, 
Mr  Clarke,  John  Allerton,  Thomas  English,  and  Edward 
Dotey,  together  with  Coppin  the  pilot,  the  master  gunner 
of  the  ship,  and  three  of  the  common  seamen,  embarked 
in  the  shallop,  in  weather  of  such  intense  coldness,  that 
the  spray  which  fell  upon  their  clothes  instantly  congealed 
into  ice. 

They  sailed  six  or  seven  leagues  without  finding  either 
river  or  creek,  until  they  came  to  a  sandy  point  of  land 
stretching  some  distance  into  the  sea,  (Billingsgate  point, 
part  of  Welfleet,)  after  doubling  the  point  they  found  a 
harbor  of  a  league  in  width,  in  the  narrowest  part ;  they 
proceeded  to  the  opposite  part  of  this  harbor,  where  they 
discovered  a  number  of  Indians  engaged  in  cutting  up  a 
grampus,  who  immediately  fled.  The  harbor  being  full 
of  shoals  they  landed    with  some  difficulty.     And  after 


5g  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

building  a  slight  barricade  and  placing  their  sentinels, 
rested  for  the  night  in  sight  of  the  smoke  of  the  Indian 
fires  at  the  distance  of  four  or  five  miles. 

The  next  morning  leaving  eight  men  in  the  shallop  to 
coast  along  the  shore,  the  remainder  were  landed,  and 
following  the  Indian  tracks  discovered  a  path  which  led 
them  some  way  into  the  woods  to  a  great  burying  place 
surrounded  with  a  palisade  and  full  of  graves,  some  being 
enclosed,  and  some  covered  with  frames,  and  many  were 
without  the  enclosure.  They  soon  returned  to  the  water, 
and  finding  their  boat  in  a  creek,  they  erected  a  barricade 
of  logs,  and  lay  down  to  rest.  At  midnight  they  were  alarm- 
ed by  a  great  noise,  but  after  discharging  a  couple  of  mus- 
kets it  ceased.  At  dawn  of  day  (December  8)  while  at  their 
devotions,  (part  of  their  arms  having  been  deposited  in  the 
boat  and  covered  with  clothes)  they  first  heard  the  terrific 
war  yell  of  the  savages ;  after  they  had  made  an  ineffect- 
ual discharge  of  their  arrows,  those  of  the  English  who 
had  retained  their  arms,  seized  them  immediately  and 
stood  on  the  defensive  ;  two  muskets  were  discharged,  and 
the  other  men  who  were  armed  were  ordered  not  to  shoot 
until  they  could  take  sure  aim,  there  being  but  four  who 
had  retained  their  muskets.  The  Indians  seeing  the  others 
run  to  the  shallop,  attacked  them  violently,  but  being 
secured  by  armor,  and  armed  with  curtel  axes  they  sus- 
tained themselves  until  they  obtained  their  muskets  from 
the  boat,  and  after  making  a  general  discharge,  the  In- 
dians were  intimidated  ;  —  one  of  them,  however,  keeping 
within  musket  shot,  continued  to  discharge  his  arrows  from 
behind  a  tree  but  a  bullet  having  struck  the  tree  and 
scattered  the  bark  and  splinters  about  his  ears,  he  took  to 
his  heels,  and  they  all  fled.  The  English  pursued  them  a 
short  distance  with  shouts,  to  show  that  they  were  not 
intimidated,  and  then  returned  to  their  shallop.      Thus 


/ 
MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  59 

terminated  the  first  encounter  between  the  English  and 
aboriginals  without  bloodshed  on  either  side,  and  they 
named  the  place  First  Encounter.*  The  English  gathered 
the  arrows,  and  sent  them  to  England  as  presents  to  their 
friends. 

After  devoutly  returning  their  thanks  to  God  for  this 
deliverance,  they  reimbarked  in  the  shallop,  but  it  being 
near  night,  a  storm  approaching,  and  having  broken  their 
rudder  they  put  before  the  wind  steering  with  oars.  To 
complete  their  misfortunes,  the  mast  broke  ;  —  they  reach- 
ed the  harbor  however,  but  being  uncertain  where  they 
were,  the  pilot  and  master's  mate  would  have  run  the  boat 
ashore  in  a  rocky  cave,  but  by  the  resolution  of  one  of  the 
seamen  they  were  induced  to  put  it  about,  and  by  hard 
rowing  they  ran  under  a  small  island  where  they  sheltered 
themselves  for  the  night.  Compelled  by  the  severity  of 
the  cold,  they  went  on  shore  and  kindled  a  fire  ;  they 
found  the  island  uninhabited,  and  named  it  Clarke's 
Island. f  A  spacious  harbor  lay  before  them  which  they 
explored  and  sounded,  and  found  it  of  sufficient  capacity 
to  receive  shipping,  and  full  of  fish  and  sea-fowl.  After 
completing  their  examination  of  this  harbor,  they  landed 
and  discovered  many  fields  where  the  Indian  corn  had 
been  cultivated,  and  fine  water.  They  again  set  sail  and 
returned  to  Cape  Cod  Harbor.  Induced  by  the  favorable 
report  of  the  adventurers,  the  company  resolved  to  com- 
mence their  settlement  at  this  place. 

*  The  place  were  this  encounter  happened  was  supposed  by  Morton  and 
others  to  have  been  Namskeket,  at  a  creek  between  Eastham  and  Harwich. 
Others  suppose  it  to  have  been  at  Great  Meadow  creek,  a  place  situated  further 
down  the  Cape.  The  attack  was  made  by  the  Nauset  Indians  whose  chief  seat 
was  but  a  few  miles  from  Namskeket. 

t  At  the  entrance  of  Plymouth  Harbor. 


60  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

The  ship  with  all  the  company  sailed  on  the  15th  and 
anchored  in  Plymouth  harbor  on  the  16th.  Four  had  died 
at  Cape  Cod. 

On  the  18th  a  party  explored  that  part  of  the  country 
which  immediately  surrounded  the  harbor,  and  were  well 
pleased  with  the  quality  of  the  soil,  and  with  the  native 
growth  of  the  woods,  but  they  discovered  neither  inhabit- 
ants nor  houses. 

On  the  19th*  after  another  superficial  examination  of 
the  country,  finding  a  place  where  much  land  had  been 
cleared,  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  small  but  pleasant 
stream  which  they  supposed  to  be  well  stored  with  fish, 
and  of  many  springs  of  sweet  water,  and  of  a  high  hill 
which  could  be  fortified  in  a  manner  so  as  to  command  the 
surrounding  country,  they  resolved  to  lay  out  a  town.  A 
storm  arising,  they  were  unable  for  two  days  to  go  off"  to 
the  ship,  but  remained  unsheltered  on  shore. f 

On  the  22d  the  company  left  the  vessel  and  landed  on 
a  rock  near  the  shore,  which  now  bears  a  consecrated 
character,  to  which  pilgrimages  are  made,  and  to  which 
the  posterity  of  the  pilgrims  delight  to  throng,  to  call  up 
the  sublime  associations  with  which  its  history  is  connect- 
ed, and  to  view  the  spot  which  received  their  forefathers. 

The  honor  of  having  first  placed  the  foot  on  this  immor- 
tal rock  has  been  pertinaciously  claimed  for  John  Alden 
and  Mary  Chilton.  It  is  now  impossible  to  settle  this 
question  of  precedence  —  neither  is  it  of  any  importance 
for  the  illustration  of  human  character  to  know  which  it 
was, —  for  such  a  purpose  it  is  far  more  important  to 
ascertain  who  it  was  that  first  embarked  in  the  ship  which 
was  to  bear  the  pilgrims  forever  from  the  civilized  world, 

*  Mourt.     Prince  says  the  20th. 

t  On  the  21st  Richard  Butteridge  died  which  was  the  first  death  atPlymouth, 


« 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  61 

to  commence  an  undertaking  full  of  danger,  and  pregnant 
with  events. 

On  the  23d,  the  settlers  began  to  cut  the  timber  for  their 
houses  and  to  drag  it  to  the  place  where  they  intended  to 
build.  Nineteen  families  were  made  up,  the  single  men 
joining  themselves  to  some  of  the  families.  This  arrange- 
ment lessened  the  labor  of  building.  To  the  largest 
families  the  largest  portions  of  land  were  alloted,  and  to 
every  person  half  a  pole  in  breadth,  and  three  poles  in 
length  ;  lots  were  cast  to  ascertain  the  owners,  and  the 
separate  parcels  were  designated  by  stakes.  This  small 
quantity  of  land  was  deemed  sufficient  for  all  their  wants, 
and  as  much  as  could  be  cultivated. 

With  as  much  despatch  as  the  feeble  health  of  the  com- 
pany would  permit,  they  erected  a  store  house  of  twenty 
feet  square,  with  a  thatched  roof  where  their  goods  were 
deposited  under  the  care  of  a  guard. 

On  the  31st  of  December,  they  named  their  settlement 
Plymouth,  because  this  place  had  been  so  called  by  Capt. 
Smith,  who  had  previously  surveyed  the  harbor,  and 
they  remembered  the  kindness  which  they  had  experi- 
enced from  the  people  of  Plymouth  in  England.  And  on 
this  day,  (it  being  Sunday)  they  worshipped  for  the  first 
time,  at  this  place. 

Soon  after,  Capt.  Standish,  with  some  of  the  company, 
went  out  to  search   for  the  natives,  but  could  find  none. 

In  this  excursion  an  eagle  was  shot,  and  so  grateful  was 
the  flesh  of  this  nauseous  bird  to  these  famished  men,  that 
they  compared  it  to  mutton. 

On  the  8th  of  January,  Francis  Billington  discovered 
a  body  of  water  which  he  supposed  to  be  a  large  sea,  but 
it  proved  to  be  two  small  lakes  which  bear  the  name  of 
Billington's  sea  to  this  day. 


62  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

On  the  9th  they  began  to  erect  their  habitations  on  both 
sides  of  a  street  which  they  had  previously  laid  out.* 
Evevy  man  built  his  own  house.  As  soon  as  a  building 
was  completed  a  family  left  the  ship  and  occupied  it,  but 
the  weather  was  so  stormy  that  they  could  seldom  work 
more  than  three  days  in  a  week.  During  this  time  a  part 
of  the  people  slept  in  the  vessel,  and  part  on  shore. 

On  the  14th  of  January  the  common  house  took  fire. 
All  their  ammunition,  and  a  part  of  their  arms  were  de- 
posited in  the  house.  Governor  Carver  and  Mr  Bradford 
were  confined  to  their  beds  within,  by  illness,  but  by  great 
exertion,  the  fire  was  extinguished,  and  the  lower  part  of 
the  building  was  saved.  The  people  in  the  ship  being 
unable  to  reach  the  shore,  were  excessively  alarmed, 
supposing  that  the  Indians  had  attacked  them.  A  suc- 
cession of  fine  days  soon  following,  they  were  enabled  to 
repair  the  common  house,  and  to  proceed  rapidly  with  the 
other  buildings. 

On  the  16th  of  February  one  of  the  settlers  who  was  out 
in  pursuit  of  game,  discovered  twelve  Indians,  and  giving 
the  alarm,  the  people  went  out  but  could  not  discover 
them.  Alarmed  by  the  appearance  of  these  Indians,  a 
general  meeting  of  the  company  was  called.  Military 
orders  were  established,  and  Miles  Standish  was  chosen 
Captain,  with  full  authority  to  order  all  the  military 
concerns. 

During  the  meeting,  two  savages  shewed  themselves  on 
the  hill,  and  by  signs  invited  the  people  to  come  to  them. 
Standish  and  Hopkins  went  out  to  meet  them,  but  they 
fled. 

*  The  street  which  ruBS  from  the  meeting  house  to  the  water,  now  called 
Leyden  street. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  g3 

So  great  was  the  sickness  during  this  month,  that  seven- 
teen died.  Eight  had  died  in  the  preceding  month.* 
The  voyage  from  England  had  been  long,  and  the 
scurvy  commenced  its  ravages.  Few  and  miserable 
were  the  comforts  which  this  poor  people  could  obtain  ; 
at  one  time  there  were  not  more  than  six  or  seven  who 
were  in  sufficient  health  to  go  out,  (amongst  whom 
were  Standish  and  Brewster.)  These  attended  the  sick 
with  unwearied  assiduity,  sparing  no  labor,  and  shunning 
no  sort  of  service.  Governor  Carver  recovered  early  in 
March. 

The  Indians  had  hitherto  kept  aloof  from  the  settlers, 
but  on  the  16th  of  March,  one  came  in  alone,  and  with 
great  boldness  addressed  them  by  saying  '  welcome  Eng- 
lishmen.' He  was  perfectly  free  in  his  deportment,  and 
very  communicative.  He  informed  them  that  he  was  a 
sagamore,!  and  that  he  lived  at  some  distance,  but  had 
been  for  some  time  in  the  vicinity  of  the  settlement,  and 
that  his  name  was  Samoset.  He  appeared  to  possess  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  neighboring  country  and  its 
inhabitants.  He  informed  them  that  the  place  where  they 
were  was  called  Patuxet,J  and  that  a  few  years  previous 
to  their  landing  all  its  inhabitants  died  of  a  plague,  of 
such  a  deadly  nature  that  it  spared  neither  man,  woman 
nor  child,  and  that  no  one  could  make  any  claim  to  the 
land,  or  rightfully  molest  them.  He  also  informed  them 
that  their  next  neighbors  were  the  Wampanoags,  (the 
English  supposed  he  called  them  Massasoits,  but  that  was 

*  Jan.  29 — Mrs  Rose  Standish,  wife  of  Capt.  Standish,  died. 

Feb.  21 — Mr  William  White,  Mr  William  Mullins,  and  two  more,  died. 
"   25 — Mrs  Mary  Allerton,  wife  of  Mr  Isaac  Allerton,  died, 
t  A  petty  chief. 

t  The  Indians  did  not  name  places  arbitrarily,  but  from  its  peculiarities ;  the 
name  of  Patuxet  was  attached  to  many  places  in  New  England. 


64  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

the  name  of  their  chief  sachem,)  that  they  had  sixty  war- 
riors, and  that  the  Nausites,  to  the  southeast,  could  raise 
an  hundred. 

The  savages  who  had  encountered  them  were  Nausites. 
They  were  hostile  to  the  English,  having  killed  three  of 
sir  Ferdinand  Gorges'  men  a  few  months  before.  The 
Nausites  were  justly  suspicious  of  the  English.  An  Eng- 
lish ship-captain  whose  name  was  Hunt,  a  few  years  be- 
fore, had  trepanned  twenty  of  the  Patuxet  Indians  and 
seven  Nausites,  (who  unsuspiciously  went  on  board  his 
ship,)  and  perfidiously  sold  them  for  slaves. 

The  next  day  the  English  dismissed  Samoset  with  pres- 
ents, after  requiring  him  to  cause  the  restoration  of  some 
tools  which  had  been  stolen  in  the  woods,  and  after  he  had 
promised  to  return  with  some  of  Massasoit's  men  to  bring 
beaver-skins  for  traffic.  He  soon  returned  in  company  with 
five  Nausites  dressed  and  painted  in  all  the  extravagance 
of  the  Indian  fashion,  and  bringing  back  the  tools  which 
had  been  lost ;  they  were  received  with  much  hospitality  by 
the  English,  and  made  many  demonstrations  of  friendship, 
feeding  heartily  upon  the  food  which  was  set  before  them, 
and  singing  and  dancing  after  their  manner.  They 
brought  some  skins,  but  the  English  would  enter  into  no 
traffic  on  the  Lord's  day.  They  departed,  extremely  grati- 
fied with  their  reception,  and  promised  to  return  and  bring 
more  skins. 

Samoset  feigning  himself  sick,  remained  a  day  or  two 
longer  ;  he  was  then  despatched  to  find  the  other  Indians. 
While  he  was  absent,  two  or  three  Indians  appeared  on 
the  hill,  using  threatening  gestures,  but  Standish  and  an- 
other approaching  them  armed,  they  fled,  after  making  a 
show  of  defiance.  On  the  next  day,  (March  22)  Samoset 
returned  in  company  with  four  others,  amongst  whom  was 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  (55 

Squanto  or  Tisquantum,*  who  was  the  sole  remaining  na- 
tive of  Patuxet.  Squanto  was  one  of  those  who  had  been 
decoyed  by  Hunt ;  he  had  resided  for  some  time  in  Lon- 
don with  one  Slany,  a  merchant,  and  had  learned  a  little 
English.  They  brought  some  skins  and  a  (ew  fish  to 
sell,  and  informed  the  English  that  the  great  sagamore 
Massasoiet,  with  Quadequina  his  brother,  and  all  his  force? 
were  near. 

Massasoiet  soon  appeared  on  the  hill  with  sixty  men. 
The  English  were  unwilling  that  the  governor  should  go 
to  them,  and  they  were  apprehensive  of  approaching  the 
English.  Squanto  was  despatched  to  ascertain  their  de- 
signs, and  they  signified  through  him  that  they  were  desi- 
rous that  some  one  should  be  sent  to  hold  a  parley.  Ed- 
ward Winslow  was  sent  with  presents  for  the  chief,  which 
were  willingly  accepted,  and  Winslow's  address  was  heard 
with  great  attention,  although  the  interpreters  did  not 
succeed  very  well  in  explaining  it. 

He  told  the  sachem  that  '  king  James  saluted  him  with 
the  words  of  love  and  peace,  and  did  accept  of  him  as  his 
friend  and  ally,  and  that  the  governor  desired  to  see  him, 
and  to  trade  with  him,  and.  to  live  on  friendly  terms  with 
his  near  neighbor.'  The  sword  and  armor  of  Winslow 
caught  the  attention  of  the  sachem,  and  he  expressed  a 
wish  to  buy  them,  but  the  sword  and  armor  of  Edward 
Winslow  were  not  for  sale  :  leaving  Winslow  in  the  cus- 
tody of  his  brother,  and  followed  by  twenty  men,  who  left 
their  bows  and  arrows  behind,  he  crossed  a  brook  which 
ran  between  him  and  the  English. 

Capt.  Standish  and  Mr  Williamson,  with  six  men  armed 
with  muskets,  met  the  sachem  at  the  brook,  and  after 
salutations  had   been    exchanged,    attended   him    to    the 

*  He  was  called  by  both  names. 


66  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH   COLONY. 

house,  and  placed  a  green  rug  and  three  or  four  cushions 
on  the  floor  for  his  accommodation.  The  governor,  pre- 
ceded with  a  flourish  of  a  drum  and  trumpet  (the  sound  of 
which  excessively  delighted  the  Indians,)  and  followed  by 
several  soldiers,  entered  the  house.  The  governor  and 
sachem,  after  saluting  each  other,  sat  down  together  and 
regaled  themselves  with  meat  and  drink  ;  and  then  the 
following  Treaty  was  proposed  by  the  governor  and  agreed 
to  by  Massasoiet. 

1.  '  That  neither  he,  nor  any  of  his,  should  injure  or  do 
hurt  to  any  of  their  people.' 

2.  '  That  if  any  of  his  did  any  hurt  to  any  of  theirs,  he 
should  send  the  offender,  that  they  might  punish  him.' 

3.  '  That  if  anything  were  taken  away  from  any  of  theirs, 
he  should  cause  it  to  be  restored  ;  and  they  should  do  the 
like  to  his.' 

4.  '  That  if  any  did  unjustly  war  against  him,  they  would 
aid  him  ;  and  if  any  did  war  against  them,  he  should  aid 
them.' 

5.  '  That  he  should  send  to  his  neighbor  confederates,  to 
inform  them  of  this,  that  they  might  not  wrong  them,  but 
might  likewise  be  comprised  in  these  conditions  of  peace.' 

6.  '  That  when  his  men  came  to  them  upon  any  occasion, 
they  should  leave  their  arms,  (which  were  bows  and  arrows) 
behind  them.' 

'  Lastly.  That  so  doing,  their  sovereign  lord,  king  James, 
would  esteem  him  as  his  friend  and  ally.' 

All  which  he  liked  well,  and  withal  at  the  same  time 
'  acknowledged  himself  content  to  become  the  subject  of 
our  sovereign  lord  the  king  aforesaid,  his  heirs  and  suc- 
cessors ;  and  gave  unto  them  all  the  lands  adjacent,  to 
them  and  their  heirs  forever.'* 

*  Morton's  New  England  Memoriaf. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  g7 

Thus  was  concluded  the  first  treaty  between  the  Eng^sh 
and  the  Indians  of  New  Plymouth  ;  —  a  treaty,  though  sim- 
ple in  its  terms,  important  in  its  consequences,  for  it  was  a 
treaty  of  peace,  and  of  alliance  offensive  and  defensive, 
and  its  conditions  were  faithfully  observed  for  a  period  of 
fiftyfive  years,  exhibiting  an  instance  of  unexampled  good 
faith,  fidelity,  and  honesty,  in  both  parties.  The  verbal 
acknowledgment,  if  coupled  with  the  treaty,  involved  con- 
sequences more  important,  for  it  contained  a  grant  of  land 
and  a  consent  to  the  sovereignty  and  jurisdiction  of  the 
English  king  over  it. 

Although  Massasoiet  was  pleased  with  the  result  of  the 
conference,  yet  he  was  under  great  alarm,  which  was  man- 
ifested from  his  trembling.  He  was  a  large  and  good  look- 
ing man,  but  very  grave  and  taciturn  in  his  deportment. 

The  sachem  and  his  followers,  after  leaving  six  or  seven 
hostages  for  Mr  Winslow,  retired  with  their  wives  and 
children  into  the  woods  where  they  slept  during  the  night. 
Quadequina  and  those  who  were  with  him,  were  well 
received  by  the  English,  and  were  conveyed  back  together 
with  the  hostages,  and  Winslow  returned. 

These  Indians  promised  to  plant  their  corn,  and  to  dwell 
near  the  English  during  the  approaching  summer.  During 
the  night  the  English  kept  strict  watch.  The  next  morn- 
ing the  Indians  visited  them  again  and  informed  them  that 
the  sachem  wished  to  see  some  of  them.  Captain  Stan- 
dish  and  Isaac  Allerton  immediately  ventured  to  go  amongst 
them,  and  were  kindly  received.  There  was  not  the  slight- 
est indication  of  hostility  on  the  part  of  the  Indians.  The 
English  pursued  their  usual  occupations  in  the  woods,  and 
were  not  molested. 

The  sachem  was  the  more  induced  to  cultivate  the 
friendship  of  the  English,  inasmuch,  as  he  was  very 
appiehensive  of  the  Narragansetts,  a  powerful  and  hostile 
tribe  in  his  vicinity. 


68  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

On  the  next  day  the  Indians  returned  to  Sowams,*  their 
head  quarters. 

'  P  Samoset  and  Squanto,  who  had  contracted  a  strong 
affection  for  the  English  remained  with  them,  and  in- 
structed them  in  the  manner  of  taking  fish,  and  in  the 
simple  agriculture  of  their  countrymen,  shewing  them  how 
the  corn  should  be  planted,  and  how  the  ground  should 
be  manured  with  alewives,  (of  which,  immense  quantities 
came  into  the  brook,)  and  rendered  them  many  kind  offi- 
ces<  Squanto  also  acted  as  their  pilot,  conducting  them 
to  all  the  places  where  any  traffic  could  be  had,  and  never 
left  them  during  his  life.  They  planted  twenty  acres  to 
corn,  and  six  to  barley  and  peas.  The  corn  produced  well, 
but  the  barley  and  peas  failed.  On  the  25th  of  March, 
the  company  met  and  passed  some  laws  and  military 
orders,  and  confirmed  Carver  in  the  government  for  another 
year.f 

•On  the  next  day  the  whole  company  was  convened  for 
the  purpose  of  judging  oi  the  offence  of  John  BillingtoUy 
which  was  the  first  that  had  been  committed  amongst  them. 
He  had  insulted  the  captain  with  opprobrious  language, 
for  which  they  adjudged  him  to  have  his  neck  and  heels 
tied  together  ;  but  after  humbling  himself  and  craving 
pardon,  he  was  forgiven.  Billington  was  not  one  of  the 
Leyden  congregation,  but  was  shipped  at  London.  The 
settlers  lost  by  death  during  the  month  of  March,  thirteen 
more  of  their  number,  and  more  than  half  the  sailors  died 
during  their  residence  here. 

On  the  5th  of  April,  the  May  Flower  sailed  for  England, 
where  she  arrived  on  the  6th  of  May. 

On  the  same  day,  the  colony  met  with  a  great  loss  by 
the  death  of  the  governor.     He  had  been  working  in  the 

*  In  the  ancient  Swansey,  near  the  present  town  of  Warren  in  Rhode 
Island. 

t  Mrs  Elizabeth  Winslow  wife  of  Mr  Edward  Winslow  died. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY,  gg 

field,  but  left  it  at  noon,  complaining  of  a  severe  pain  in 
his  head  which  was  caused  as  he  supposed  by  the  sun,  he 
soon  became  senseless,  and  in  a  few  days  died.  The  grief 
of  the  colonists  was  almost  inconsolable.  They  buried 
him  with  the  honors  of  war.  His  wife,  who  was  strongly 
attached  to  him,  overcome  with  sorrow,  survived  him  but 
six  weeks. 

His  biographer*  says,  '  that  he  was  a  man  of  great  pru- 
dence, integrity,  and  firmness  of  mind.  He  had  a  good 
estate  in  England,  which  he  spent  in  the  emigration  to 
Holland  and  America.  He  was  one  of  the  foremost  in 
action,  and  bore  a  large  share  of  sufferings  in  the  service 
of  the  colony,  who  confided  in  him  as  their  friend  and 
father.  Piety,  humility,  and  benevolence,  were  eminent 
traits  in  his  character,  and  it  is  particularly  remarked,  that 
in  the  time  of  general  sickness,  which  befel  the  colony, 
and  with  which  he  was  affected,  after  he  had  himself  re- 
covered, he  was  assiduous  in  attending  the  sick,  and  per- 
forming the  most  humiliating  services  for  them  without 
any  distinction  of  persons  or  characters.'! 

*  Dr  Belknap, 
t  Death  had  made  great  havoc  in  this  little  community  at  the  time  of  the 
death  of  Governor  Carver,  of  the  signers  of  the  compact  there  then  only  re- 
mained 

Died. 
Mr  William  Bradford,  1657      Francis  Cook, 

Mr  Edward  Winslow,  1655      Francis  Eaton, 

Mr  William  Brewster,  1644     John  Billington,  Executed     1630 

Mr  Isaac  Allerton,  Gilbert  Winslow, 

Capt.  Miles  Standish,  1656      Peter  Brown, 

John  Alden,  1686      George  Soule,  (of  Edward  Winslow's 

Mr  Samuel  Fuller,  1633  Family,) 

Mr  Richard  Warxen,  1628      Richard  Gardiner, 

John  Howland  (of  Carver's  Edward  Dotey,      )  Both  servants  of 

family,)  aged  80  Feb.  22    1672      Edward  Leister,    S  Stephen  Hopkins. 
Mr  Stephen  Hopkins, 


70  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Less  is  known  of  the  private  life  of  Governor  Carvef 
than  of  any  other  of  the  early  pilgrims  of  note.  The 
place  and  time  of  his  birth  are  not  known,  neither  is  it 


Being  19  in  all 
And  there   remained  of  women,   children    and   servants, 
excluding  Gov.  Carver's  wife, 


36 

55  souls  in  alL 


THOSE    WHO    DIED    WERE 

Gov.  Carver,  James  Chilton, 

Mr  Christopher  Martin,  John  Crackston, 

Mr  William  Mullins,  Mnses  Flelc'ier, 

Mr  William  White,  John  Goodman, 

Edward  Tilly,  Degory  Priest, 

John  Tilly,  Thomas  Williams, 

Thomas  Rogers,  Edmund  Margeson, 

Thomas  Tinker,  Richard  Butteridge, 

John  Ridgdale,  Richard  Clarke, 

Edward  Fuller,  John  Allerton, 

John  Turner,  Thomas  English, 

Subscribers  to  the  compact,  22 

Also,  the  wives  of  Carver,  Bradford,  Standish,  Isaac    ) 
Allerton,  and  Edward  Winslow.  ) 

Also,  Edward  Thompson,  a  servant  of  Mr   White,    ^ 
and  Jasper   Carver,  a  son  of  the    governor,  and  Solo-    >        3 
mon  Martin,  ) 

Other  women,  children,  and  servants,  whose  names 
are  not  known. 


16 


46 

Half  of  the  ship's  crew  also  died.  Before  the  second  arrival  of  recruits  ia 
November,  1621,  four  more  died,  making  the  whole  number  of  deaths  50,  and 
leaving  the  total  number  of  the  survivors  51.  Of  those  not  named  among  the 
survivors,  being  young  men,  women,  children,  and  servants,  there  were  32, 
Amongst  whom,  from  a  document  inserted  by  Judge  Davis  in  his  Appendix  iff 
Morton's  Memorial,  appears  the  names  of  Joseph  Rogers,  probably  ason  ofThom- 
as  Rogers  who  died,  Mary  Chilton,  Henry  Sampson,  and  Humility  Cooper. 

Exclusive  of  Governor  Carver,  the  most  distinguished  amongst  those  who  died, 
were  Mr  Christopher  Martin,  Mr  William  Mullins,  and  Mr  William  White.  They 
all  had  families.  Edward  Thompson,  a  servant  of  Mr  White,  was  the  first  who 
died  in  the  colony.  Fletcher,  Goodman,  Priest,  Williams,  Margeson,  Britteridge, 
Clarke,  John  Allerton,  and  English,  were  single  men.  Ridgdale  left  no  cliildren- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  71 

known  except  by  inference  and  strong  probability,  that  he 
was  one  of  Robinson's  church  who  emigrated  from  Eng- 
land  to   Holland.     He  first  appears   as   the  agent  of  the 
church  to  treat  with  the  Virginia  company,  of  which  church 
he  is  said  to  have  been  one  of  the  deacons,  and  it  is  also 
said  that  he  had  once  possessed  a  large  property,  which 
had  been  impaired  during  his  exile.    The  same  uncertainty 
seems  to  rest  upon  his  family.     At  the  time  of  signing  the 
compact,  (including  John  Howland,)  it  was  eight  in  num- 
ber.   Afterwards,  on  the  sixth  of  December,  his  son  Jasper 
died,  and  his  wife,  overcome  with  grief  for  the  loss  of  her 
husband  and  son,  soon  followed  them  to  the  grave.       Yet 
there  were  children   remaining,  but  their  names  are  no- 
where mentioned,  neither  in  the  instrument  relating  to  the 
assignment  of  the  lands,  nor  in   that  relating  to  the  divi- 
sion of  the  cattle ;  neither  do  they  appear  at  any  subse- 
quent time  in  the  annals  of  the  colony  ;  they  attained  no 
civil  honors;  they  rose  to  no  distinction ;  but   less  fortu- 
nate than   the  children  of  the  other    governors,  they   re- 
mained in  obscurity  and  were  unnoticed  by  the  people.     A 
grandson  of  Governor  Carver  who  lived  at  Marshfield,  ac- 
quired some  notoriety  in  consequence  of  his  extreme  age, 
having  lived  until  he  was  102.     This  grandson  was  alive  as 
late  as  1755,   for  in  that  year  he  was  seen  laboring  in  the 
same  field  with  his  son,  grandson,  and  great  grandson,  while 
an  infant  of  the  fifth  generation  was  in  his  house.  It  is  also 
said  that  the  celebrated  traveller  was  descended  from  the 
governor.     From  the  account  which  is  given  of  his  death, 
it  would  seem  to  have  been  occasioned  by  a  stroke  of  the 
sun,  and  yet  it  is  not  a  little  remarkable  that  such  an  effect 
should  have  been  produced  in  this  climate  on  the  fifth  of 
April.     His  posterity  are  numerous.     From  all  that  ap- 
pears, he  was  nearly  perfect  in  all  the  moral  and  christian 
virtues. 


(       72       ) 


CHAPTER  VI. 

William  Bradford  elected  Governor,  and  Isaac  Allerton  an  assistant,  or  Deputy 
Governor. — Duel. — Edward  Winslow,  and  Stephen  Hopkins,  visit  Massasoiet 
at  Sowams. — A  boy  lost  and  recovered. — Hobbomock  comes  to  Plymouth  to 
reside. — Corbitant's  quarrel  withSquanto  and  Hobbomock. — Standish's  expe- 
dition to  rescue  Squanto,  and  his  attack  upon  Corbitant's  hut. — Submission  of 
several  native  Chiefs. — Prediction  of  a  Frenchman. — Colonists  explore  Massa- 
chusetts Bay. — Arrival  of  the  Fortune,  bringing  Mr  Cushman  and  thirtyfive 
passengers. — Hostility  of  the  Narragansetts. — Town  enclosed. — Military  dis- 
cipline eatablished. — Standish  sets  out  in  the  Shallop  on  a  trading  voyage  to 
the  Massachusetts. — Alarm  at  Plymouth. — Squanto's  duplicity,  and  Massa- 
soiet's  resentment. — Arrival  of  the  Sparrow. — EdwardlWinslow  despatched  to 
purchase  provisions  of  the  Fishermen. — Distress  of  the  Colonists  for  food. — 
Threats  of  the  natives. — Colonists  erect  a  Fort. — Arrival  of  the  Charity  and 
the  Swan  with  Weston's  Company. — They  settle  at  Wessagusset  (Weymouth) 
Their  profligate  conduct. — Arrival  of  the  Discovery  and  the  Swallow. — Tra- 
ding Expeditions  to  procure  food. — The  miserable  situation  of  the  plantation  at 
Wessagusset. 

-         Shortly  after  the  death  of  Carver,  William  Brad- 
ford was  elected  his  successor,  but  being  in  indif- 
erent  health,  at  his  request  an  assistant  or  deputy  Governor 
was  chosen.  -  The  choice  fell  on  Isaac  Allerton. 

Bradford  was  a  native  of  Ansterfield  in  the  north  of 
England  where  he  was  born  in  1588.  He  had  been  edu- 
cated to  husbandry  which  was  the  occupation  of  his 
kinsfolk.  His  inheritance  was  considerable,  but  his 
education  v^^as  indifferent.  At  the  early  age  of  twelve  he 
spent  all  his  leisure  time  in  reading  the  Scriptures,  and 
became  seriously  impressed.  He  firmly  maintained  his 
religious  opinions  notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  his 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  73 

relatives  and  the  odium  which  followed  the  character  of 
a  separatist. 

He  was  a  constant  attendant  upon  the  preaching  of 
Clifton,  and  connected  himself  with  Robinson's  church. 
At  the  age  of  eighteen,  he  attempted  to  emigrate  to 
Holland,  but  was  apprehended  and  imprisoned  at  Boston 
in  England,  but  being  very  young,  he  was  soon  liberated. 
After  many  difficulties  and  disappointments  he  finally 
succeeded  in  reaching  Holland. 

At  Leyden  he  learned  the  art  of  dying  silk.  When  he 
came  of  age  he  sold  his  estate  in  England,  and  entered 
upon  commerce. 

He  was  one  of  the  most  zealous  advocates  for  the  re- 
moval of  Robinson's  church  to  America. 

His  zeal,  his  devotion  to  the  society,  his  enterprising 
spirit,  and  his  industry,  all  conspired  to  give  him  such  a 
degree  of  consideration,  that  upon  the  death  of  Carver, 
(although  he  was  then  very  ill,)  all  eyes  were  turned  upon 
him  as  his  successor,  the  company  postponed  the  election 
until  he  had  partially  recovered,  and  then  elected  him 
governor  at  the  early  age  of  thirtytwo 

On  the  eighteenth  of  June,  (1621,)  the  whole  company 
were  convened  to  adjudge  upon  the  second  offence  which 
had  been  committed  in  the  colony  ;  this,  was  a  duel  fought 
with  sword  and  dagger  between  Edward  Doty  and  Ed- 
ward Leister,  the  servants  of  Stephen  Hopkins,  in  which 
both  were  wounded.  The  company  sentenced  them 
to  have  their  heads  and  feet  tied  together,  and  so  to 
remain  for  a  day  without  meat  or  drink,  but  within  an 
hour,  upon  their  solicitations  and  promises,  and  the  request 
of  their  master,  they  were  released  by  the  Governor. 
The  slight  punishment  bestowed  upon  this  offence,  seems 
surprising  even  in  these  days,  but  it  did  not  accord  with 
the  martial  spirit  of  that  age  to  punish  such  offences 
10 


74  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

rigorously.  Indulgence  in  sensual  pleasures  found  but 
little  favor  with  the  austere  pilgrims,  but  a  hostile  re- 
counter  of  this  sort,  although  deemed  an  offence  worthy 
of  punishment,  was  viewed  with  less  displeasure. 

In  July  (1G21)  Edward  Winslow  and  Stephen  Hopkins 
were  despatched  by  the  Governor  to  visit  Massasoiet.  The 
object  of  this  measure  was  to  gain  a  better  knowledge  of 
the  country,  to  ascertain  the  strength  and  power  of  the 
sachem,  '  to  apologise  for  some  misbehavior,  to  establish 
and  regulate  an  intercourse,  to  procure  corn,  and  to 
strengthen  their  mutual  good  understanding.'  Squanto 
went  with  them  as  a  guide. 

They  carried  a  horseman's  laced  coat  of  red  cotton, 
and  a  chain,  for  presents. 

This  was  the  first  attempt  of  the  English  to  explore  the 
interior. 

The  first  Indian  town  which  they  reached  was  Nam- 
asket,*  distant  about  fifteen  miles  from  Plymouth,  and 
under  the  rule  of  Massasoiet.  The  messengers  were  well 
known  to  these  Indians  (who  resorted  to  Plymouth  almost 
daily  for  the  purpose  of  fishing,)  and  were  received  with 
great  joy,  and  regaled  with  bread  called  Mazium,  made  of 
the  Indian  corn,  and  also  with  the  roes  of  shad  which 
were  boiled  with  acorns. 

They  then  went  about  eight  miles  farther,  where  they 
reached  a  river  called  by  the  natives  Titicut,f  where  they 
found  many  of  the  Namasket  Indians  fishing  at  a  weir,J 
where  they  caught  bass  in  great  plenty  ;  here,  an  inter- 
change of  hospitable  offices  took  place  between  Winslow 

*  In  Middleborough.  t  Now  called  Taunton  river. 

X  This  weir  is  supposed  to  have  been  at  or  near  a  village  now  called  Titticut, 
partly  in  Bridgewater,  and  partly  in  Middleborough. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  75 

and  Hopkins  and  the  natives,  each  partaking  of  the  others' 
provisions. 

They  lodged  that  night  in  the  open  fields,  the  Indians 
having  no  wigwams,  although  they  spent  much  of  the 
summer  there.  ' 

The  land  on  both  sides  of  the  river  was  cleared  and  well 
adapted  to  cultivation.  They  were  informed  by  the  na- 
tives that  there  once  had  been  many  settlements  on  its 
banks,  but  that  the  whole  country  in  the  neighborhood  of 
the  river  had  been  depopulated  by  a  pestilence,  so  fatal, 
that  the  living  were  unable  to  bury  the  dead.  The 
account  of  the  Indians  was  corroborated  by  the  sight  of 
many  skeletons  which  lay  bleaching  on  the  ground  as 
they  passed.  ' 

The  next  morning  the  ambassadors  continued  their 
journey  accompanied  by  six  of  the  natives.  Having  trav- 
elled six  miles  they  reached  a  fording  place,*  and  prepar- 
ed to  cross  the  river.  Here  they  were  encountered  on  the 
opposite  bank  by  two  aged  men,  being  the  only  individuals 
in  this  part  of  the  country  who  had  survived  the  pestilence, 
who  prepared  with  great  resolution  to  resist  their  passage, 
but  understanding  they  were  friends,  they  received  them 
with  much  kindness  and  gave  them  food,  which  was  recip- 
rocated by  the  present  of  a  bracelet  of  beads.  Here  they 
ascertained  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  tide.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  extreme  heat  of  the  weather  they  continued  their 
journey,  quenching  their  thirst  with  the  fine  water  of  the 
springs  which  they  found  in  great  abundance.  Their 
savage  companions  deported  themselves  with  great  civility, 
and  showed  them  many  kind  attentions,  bearing  them 
through  the  waters  of  the  small  rivers,  and  offering  to 
carry  their  clothes  and  their  guns  ;  but  they  proportioned 
their   civilities   between    the    two    Englishmen    as    they 

*  Near  the  new  forge  on  Taunton  River,  about  three  miles  from  the  green^ 


76  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

themselves  had  experienced  kindness  from  the  one,  or  the 
other. 

In  passing  along  by  the  river,  they  discovered  but  few 
places  which  had  not  been  once  inhabited  ;  the  ground  was 
cleared,  but  the  signs  of  the  ravages  of  the  plague  were 
apparent  everywhere.  The  weeds  overtopped  their  heads, 
denoting  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  but  silence  and  deso- 
lation reigned  throughout  this  depopulated  region.  The 
wood  was  oak,  walnut,  fir,  beech,  and  gigantic  chesnuts. 

They  reachedavillage  of  Massasoiet's  and  after  satisfying 
their  hunger  with  a  meal  of  fish  and  oysters,  proceeded  to 
Pokanoket,*  the  residence  of  the  chief,  who  was  absent. 
One  of  them  attempting  to  charge  his  gun,  the  women 
and  children  fled,  and  would  not  be  pacified  until  he  de- 
sisted, and  their  friendly  dispositions  made  known  by  the 
interpreters. 

Upon  the  arrival  of  Massasoiet,  they  saluted  him  by 
discharging  their  muskets,  and  he  received  them  with 
much  joy.  They  made  known  the  purport  of  their  em- 
bassy, and  presented  the  chief  with  the  coat  and  the 
chain  which  they  had  brought  as  presents,  with  which 
both  he  and  his  people  were  much  delighted. 

The  chief  gave  them  assurances  of  the  continuance  of 
his  friendship,  and  of  his  desire  of  a  lasting  peace,  and 
promised  to  prevent  any  further  molestation  on  the  part 
of  his  people,  and  to  send  seed  corn  to  Patuxet  as  re- 
quested. ^After  he  had  addressed  the  messengers,  he 
addressed  his  own  people,  setting  forth  his  authority  over 
at  least  thirty  places,  and  directing  th&m  to  carry  their 
furs  to  the  English.  This  speech  was  received  with  great 
applause  by  the  Indians. 

*  This  name  was  applied  to  a  large  territory. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  77 

After  smoking,  he  entered  into  conversation  with  the 
messengers,  and  entreated  them  to  use  their  influence  with 
the  company  to  prevent  the  French  from  trading  at  Nar- 
ragansett,  whither  it  seems  they  had  sometimes  resorted, 
saying,  '  it  was  King  James's  country,  and  he  was  King 
James's  man.'  He  informed  them  that  the  Narragansetts 
were  a  strong  people,  lived  compactly,  and  had  suffered 
nothing  from  the  plague. 

The  chief  having  been  absent  for  some  time  previous 
to  their  arrival,  no  provisions  were  collected.  His  sleep- 
ing place  was  on  a  platform  of  plank  raised  a  little  above 
the  ground,  and  covered  with  a  thin  mat ;  on  this,  the 
messengers,  the  chief  and  his  wife,  and  two  others,  laid 
down,  but  the  Englishmen  unaccustomed  to  such  rough 
lodgings,  and  to  such  companions,  and  annoyed  by  insects, 
gained  but  little  repose. 

On  the  next  day  many  of  the  petty  sachems  came  in 
accompanied  by  their  men,  who  played  at  some  of  their 
games  for  skins  and  knives. 

The  only  provisions  of  Massasoiet  were  two  fish,  which 
he  caught  after  their  arrival,  and  his  guests  amounted  in 
number  to  forty,  nevertheless,  he  importuned  the  messen- 
gers to  tarry  longer,  but  they  being  anxious  to  keep  the 
sabbath  at  home,  and  being  unable  to  sleep  amidst  the 
filth  of  the  Indian  cabins,  and  suffering  from  the  want  of 
food,  made  their  excuses  and  departed,  leaving  the  chief 
both  grieved  and  ashamed  that  he  could  entertain  them  no 
better. 

Squanto  remained  to  collect  articles  for  traflic,  and 
Massasoiet  despatched  Tokamahamon  to  guide  them  to 
Plymouth,  where  they  arrived  in  two  days  by  the  same 
route  which  they  had  already  travelled. 


78  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLON  i'. 

In  this  favorable  manner  terminated  the  first  embassy 
of  the  English  to  the  natives. 

The  simple  and  unsophisticated  aboriginals  received  the 
strangers  into  the  bosom  of  their  country,  little  apprehen- 
sive of  the  mighty  consequences  which  would  follow  their 
establishment  there,  the  loss  of  that  country,  and  the 
extermination   of  their  posterity. 

As  little  did  the  colonists  apprehend  that  they  were  to  be 
amongst  the  founders  of  a  mighty  empire  ;  destined  in  two 
centuries,  to  become  one  of  the  greatest  on  earth ;  that 
their  dominion  would  be  extended  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific  ocean  5  that  their  posterity  would  become  as  nume- 
rous as  the  sands  on  the  sea-shore  ;  that  they  were  about  to 
extend  their  laws,  language,  and  religion,  over  a  country 
almost  equalling  in  extent  the  whole  of  Europe  ;  but  '  the 
wisdom  of  the  Almighty  is  past  finding  out.' 

John  Billington,  a  boy,  having  been  lost  in  the  woods, 
an  inquiry  was  instituted  amongst  the  natives,  and  Massa- 
soiet  sent  word  to  the  English  that  he  was  at  Nauset.  He 
had  wandered  about  for  five  days,  subsisting  on  berries, 
and  then  reached  an  Indian  plantation,  twenty  miles  south 
of  Plymouth,  called  Manomet,*  and  from  thence  had 
been  conveyed  to  the  Nausites.  The  governor  sent  ten 
men  in  a  shallop  with  Squanto  and  Tokamahamon  to  re- 
cover him. 

Having  anchored  their  shallop  in  the  bay  near  the  har- 
bor of  Cummaquidjf  the  Indians  invited  them  on  shore, 
and  four  of  them  remained  in  the  boat  as  hostages  for  the 
safety  of  the  English.  Here  they  had  an  interview  with 
the  young   sachem  of  the  country,    Iyanougli,J  who    they 

*  In  Sandwich.  t  Barnstable  Harbor. 

i  Sometimes  called  the  sachem  of  Cummaquid,  and  sometimes  of  Mattakiest. 
This  country  being  between  the  Harbors  of  Barnstable  and  Yarmouth. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  79 

found  to  be  '  very  personable,  gentle,  courteous,  fair  con- 
ditioned,' and  hospitable,  with  little  of  the  savage  in  his 
deportment  or  manners.  Taking  him  with  two  of  his  fol- 
lowers into  the  shallop,  they  proceeded  on  their  voyage 
to  Nauset.  Squanto  was  despatched  to  Aspinet,  the 
sachem  of  Nauset,  to  demand  the  boy.  Aspinet,  accom- 
panied with  an  hundred  of  his  men,  came  down  to  the 
sea-side,  and  sending  one  of  them  to  bear  the  boy  through 
the  water  to  the  shallop,  delivered  him  to  the  EngKsh 
decorated  with  beads,  with  which,  in  their  kindness,  they 
had  almost  covered  him. 

The  sachem  made  his  peace  with  the  English,  and  the 
English  performed  an  act  of  justice  by  making  ample  sat- 
isfaction for  the  corn  which  they  had  taken  during  the 
preceding  year.  They  also  presented  the  sachem  and  the 
Indian  who  had  protected  the  boy  with  knives. 

On  their  return  they  landed  lyanough  at  Cummaquid, 
and  established  a  firm  peace  with  the  Indians  of  that  re- 
gion. The  women  sung  and  danced  before  their  shallop, 
the  men  shewed  them  much  kindness,  and  lyanough,  tak- 
ing a  bracelet  from  his  arm,  presented  it  to  the  English. 

During  this  voyage,  they  learned  news  which  gave  them 
great  uneasiness.  The  Nausites  informed  them  that  the 
Narragansetts  had  attacked  Massasoiet,  killed  some  of  his 
men,  and  had  taken  him.  The  English  at  this  time  were 
much  gratified  by  receiving  another  proof  of  attachment 
from  the  natives.  Hobbomock,  one  of  Massasoiet's  chief 
captains,  called  in  the  Indian  language  Pinese,  a  man  of 
great  valor,  came  to  dwell  with  them,  and  continued  faith- 
fully devoted  to  their  interests  during  his  life,  and  render- 
ed them  many  services. 

Shortly  after  the  return  of  the  expedition  from  Nauset, 
the  colonists  learned  that  Corbitant,  a  petty  sachem,  with- 


80  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

in  the  jurisdiction  of  Massasoiet,*  who  was  suspected  of 
an  u-ndue  attachment  to  the  Narragansetts,  and  of  enmity 
to  the  English,  was  at  Namasket,  striving  to  disaffect  the 
subjects  of  Massasoiet,  and  to  incite  them  against  the  colo- 
nists ;  speaking  with  great  disdain  of  their  power,  and 
reviling  Squanto  for  the  part  he  took  in  establishing  a 
peace  between  them  and  the  sachems  of  Cummaquid  and 
Nauset,  and  abusing  Tokamahamon  and  Hobbomock 
because  of  their  friendship  for  the  strangers. 

Anxious  for  the  fate  of  their  chief,  Squanto  and  Hob- 
bomok  set  out  privately  from  Plymouth  to  ascertain  his 
situation,  and  lodging  at  Namasket,  they  were  discovered 
by  Corbitant.  He  beset  the  hut  whare  they  were  lodged, 
and  threatened  to  put  them  to  death.  He  seized  Squanto 
and  held  a  knife  at  his  breast,  but  Hobbomock,  being  a 
man  of  great  strength,  escaped,  and  flying  to  Plymouth, 
informed  governor  Bradford  that  Squanto  was  killed.  Up- 
on hearing  this,  the  governor  assembled  the  whole 
company,  (Aug.  13).  After  consultation  in  which  the 
justice  and  necessity  of  protecting  those  natives  who 
were  friends  to  the  colony,  and  on  whom  they  relied 
altogether  for  intelligence,  and  the  danger  of  a  timid 
policy  as  it  would  invite  attacks,  was  strongly  urged, 
the  company  resolved  to  send  out  ten  men  to  seize 
their  foes  in  the  night,  and  they  directed  them  in  case 
Squanto  had  been  killed,  to  seize  Corbitant  and  put  him  to 
death,  and  to  bring  his  head  to  Plymouth,  but  to  offer  no 
injury  to  any  unless  they  had  been  concerned  in  the  mur- 
der of  Squanto. 

On  the  fourteenth  of  August,  Capt.  Standish,  accompa- 
nied by  Hobbomock  and  fourteen  of  the  English,  set  out 
on  this   expedition,  and   after  experiencing  much  incon- 

•  He  resided  in  the  ancient  town  of  Swanzey,  near  Slades'  ferry. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOOTH  COLONY.  31 

venience  from  rain,  and  losing  their  way,  reached  Corbi- 
tant's  hut  in  the  dead  of  the  night,  and  attacked  it.  Three 
Indians,  attempting  to  escape,  were  badly  wounded.  It 
was  ascertained  that  Tokamahamon  and  Squanto  had 
received  no  injury. 

In  the  morning  Standish  marched  into  the  middle  of  the 
village,  and  Hobbomock  announced  his  intentions  to  the 
Indians  ;  he  breakfasted  at  Squanto's,  where  all  those  who 
were  not  hostile  to  the  English,  assembled,  but  Corbitant's 
faction  fled. 

The  English  declared  that  if  Massasoiet  was  not  return- 
ed unharmed  from  Narragansett,  or  if  Corbitant  should 
incite  any  insurrection  against  him,  or  should  offer  any 
violence  to  Squanto,  Hobbomock,  or  any  of  the  subjects 
of  Massasoiet,  they  would  pursue  him  to  his  utter  ruin. 
Taking  the  three  wounded  Indians  and  accompanied  by 
a  great  concourse  of  their  friends,  the  English  returned 
home. 

The  Indians  were  cured  of  their  wounds,  and  sent  home 
in  safety. 

A  deputation  was  sent  from  the  Island  of  Capawack* 
to  solicit,  and  many  sachems  sought  the  friendship  of  the 
colonists. 

The  resolute  conduct  of  the  English  intimidated  the  na- 
tives. Corbitant  solicited  the  good  offices  of  Massasoiet 
(the  report  of  whose  captivity  was  a  mistake,)  to  reconcile 
him  to  the  English ;  and  he,  together  with  several  other 
chiefs,  came  to  Plymouth  and  subscribed  the  following 
paper. 

'  September  13,  Anno.  Dom.  1621. 

'  Know  all  men  by  these  presents,  that  we,  whose  names 
are  underwritten,  acknowledge  ourselves  to  be  the  loyal 

*  Martha's  Vineyard. 
IX 


82  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

subjects  of  King  James,  king  of  Great  Britain,  France 
and  Ireland,  defender  of  the  faith,  &c.  In  witness  whereof 
and  as  a  testimonial  of  the  same,  we  have  subscribed  our 
names  or  marks,  as  followeth.' 

OCQUAMEHUD,  NaTTAWAHUNT,  QuADEQUINA. 

CaUNACOME,  CoRBITANT,  HUTTAMOIDEN, 

Obbatinua,  Chikkatabak,  Apannow. 

Even  Caunonicus,  the  great  sachem  of  the  Narragan- 
setts,  despatched  a  messenger  to  the  English  for  the  pur- 
pose of  establishing  a  peace. 

The  friendship  of  Massasoiet,  and  his  influence  over  the 
petty  sachems  in  his  vicinity,  contributed  much  to  the  se- 
curity and  peace  of , the  settlers. 

Massasoiet  had  signed  an  instrument,  which  he  gave  to 
Standish,  in  which  he  also  acknowledged  himself  to  be  the 
subject  of  King  James. 

But  there  was  another  cause  which  lay  deep  in  human 
nature,  which  saved  the  English.  The  Indians  were  over- 
awed by  a  prediction  which  induced  them  to  believe 
that  the  English  were  protected  by  a  power  with  whom 
they  were  unable  to  contend,  and  many  remarkable  and 
striking  coincidences,  and  an  almost  literal  fulfilment 
of  the  prediction  had  intimidated  them,  and  abated  their 
native  fierceness.  They  deemed  it  important  to  conciliate 
those  who  were  the  special  favorites  of  a  being  who  was 
mighty  to  save  or  to  destroy,  that  they  might  prevent, 
or  at  least  delay  their  impending  ruin. 

A  French  ship  had  been  wrecked  on  Cape  Cod ;  the 
crew  escaped,  and  saved  their  provisions  and  cargo.  They 
were  watched  by  the  Indians  until  a  favorable  opportunity 
occurred,  when  they  fell  upon  the  Frenchmen  and  slaugh- 


MEJIOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  83 

tered  all  except  three,  whom  they  preserved,  but  treated 
with  extreme  cruelty.  Two  of  these  Frenchmen  were 
ransomed  by  Mr  Dermer,  one  of  the  company  of  Sir 
Ferdinando  Gorges. 

The  other  Frenchman  lived  amongst  them  until  he  had  ac- 
quired their  language.  He  told  them  '  that  God  was  angry 
with  them  for  their  wickedness,  and  would  destroy  them,  and 
give  their  country  to  another  people,  that  they  should  not 
live  like  beasts  as  they  did,  but  should  be  clothed,  &c.' 
But  they  derided  him,  saying  '  that  they  were  so  many  that 
God  could  not  kill  them.'  His  answer  was  '  that  though 
they  were  never  so  many,  God  had  many  ways  to  destroy 
them  that  they  knew  not.' 

Shortly  after  the  death  of  this  Frenchman,  the  pesti- 
lence depopulated  their  country,  the  arrival  of  the  Eng- 
lish soon  following,  they  remembered  the  words  of  the 
Frenchman,  and  believed  them  to  have  been  dictated  by 
divine  influence.  Of  this  prediction  the  planters  were 
informed  by  many  aged  Indians. 

To  avert  the  calamities  with  which  they  were  threaten- 
ed, the  Indians  assembled  in  a  dark  swamp,  and  their 
powaws  or  priests  continued  their  incantations  for  three 
days,  during  which  the  English  were  solemnly  cursed  and 
devoted  to  destruction,  but  the  tide  of  fate  rolled  on,  and 
the  existence  of  the  prophecy  was  one  of  the  causes  of 
its  fulfilment. 

Although  the  colonists  had  heard  much  of  the  threats 
of  the  Massachusetts,  yet  the  governor  and  the  company 
determined  that  the  bay  on  which  the  Massachusetts  dwelt 
should  be  explored,  the  situation  and  circumstances  of 
the  country  ascertained,  and  a  friendly  intercourse  and 
trade  established  with  the  natives  if  practicable. 


84  MEftlOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

For  this  purpose,  on  the  eighteenth  of  September,  the 
governor  despatched  ten  men  in  the  shallop,  together 
with  Squanto  and  two  other  Indians.  On  the  next  day, 
the  shallop  came  to  anchor  under  a  cliff,*  at  the  bottom 
of  the  bay,  and  twenty  lea.gues  distant  from  Plymouth. 
The  sachem  of  this  place  was  Obatinewa,  one  of  those 
who  had  subscribed  the  submission  a  few  days  previous. 
Although  he  dwelt  out  of  the  country,  which  is  supposed 
to  have  been  the  peculiar  domain  of  Massasoiet,  yet  he 
acknowledged  him  as  his  superior  chief.  Obatinewa 
treated  the  English  with  much  kindness,  but  he  was  in 
such  great  alarm  that  he  dared  not  remain  long  in  any 
place,  being  in  constant  fear  of  the  Tarratines,  a  nation  of 
Indians  who  dwelt  far  east,  and  whose  usage  it  was  to 
attack  the  Indians  living  around  the  bay  at  the  time  of 
the  harvest  and  to  despoil  them  of  their  corn.  He  was 
also  in  much  apprehension  of  the  squaw  sachem  or  chief- 
tainess  of  the  Massachusetts. 

He  renewed  his  submission  to  the  English,  and  he  was 
assured  of  protection. 

After  crossing  this  bay  which  was  filled  with  delightful 
islands,  all  without  inhabitants,  but  with  the  vestiges  of 
former  habitations,  the  English  landed  on  the  continent, 
and  ventured  a  few  miles  into  the  country.  This  was  in 
the  neighborhood  of  a  place  where  Nanepashemet,  a  chief 
of  much  note,  had  formerly  lived  ;  he  had  been  slain  in  a 
predatory  incursion  of  the  Tarratines.  In  a  small  vale 
he  had  built  a  fort,  which  he  had  surrounded  with  a  pali- 
sade of  the  height  of  thirty  or  forty  feet,  encircled  with 
a  trench,  breast  deep.  In  the  midst  of  this  enclosure  was 
a  frame  under  which  he  was  buried.     A  similar  frame  was 

*  Supposed  by  Dr  Belknap  to  be  Copp's  Hill  in  the  uortli  part  of  Boston. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  8& 

placed  as  a  monument  on  the  highest  part  of  the  hill  where 
he  was  killed. 

The  natives,  although  fearful  at  first,  soon  became  fa- 
miliar with  the  English,  and  entertained  them  hospitably. 
A  traffic  was  commenced  and  finished  satisfactorily,  and 
the  shallop,  with  a  considerable  number  of  beaver  skins, 
returned  in  safety  to  Plymouth. 

The  report  of  the  shallop's  crew  was  so  favorable  re- 
specting the  country  of  the  Massachusetts,  that  the  colo- 
nists regretted  that  they  had  not  been  seated  there,  al- 
though there  had  been  no  want  of  provisions  through  the 
summer,  and  a  successful  traffic  had  been  opened  with  the 
natives; — fishing  was  good  both  for  cod  and  bass;  the 
harvest  was  gathered ;  water-fowl  abounded ;  the  forest 
was  filled  with  deer  and  wild  turkeys;  the  houses  were 
well  prepared  to  resist  the  inclemency  of  the  winter,  and 
the  people  were  in  perfect  health,  and  under  no  appre- 
hensions of  want. 

On  the  9th  of  November  a  vessel  arrived  at  Cape  Cod, 
which  the  colonists  mistook  at  first  for  a  Frenchman,  but 
were  much  relieved  on  finding  it  was  the  Fortune  of  fifty- 
five  tons  burthen,  bringing  Mr  Cushman  and  thirtyfive 
more  passengers,*  who  intended  to  remain  at  the  plan- 
tation. 

"  The  foilowing  persons  came  in  the  Fortune. 

Robert  Cushman,  Robert  Hickes, 

William  Hilton,  Thomas  Prence,  (Prince,  afterwards 
John  Winslow,  Governor,) 

"William  Coner,  Stephen  Dean, 

John  Adams,  Moses  Simonson  (Simmons,) 

William  Tench,  Phihp  De  La  Noye  (Delano,) 

John  Cannon,  Edward  Bompasse(Bumpus  and  Bump,) 

William  Wright,  Clement  Brigges  (Briggs,) 

William  Pitt,  James  Steward  (Stewart,) 


85  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

This  vessel  had  sailed  from  London  early  in  July,  but 
did  not  clear  the  English  channel  before  the  end  of  August* 
Nearly  all  the  provisions  had  been  consumed  in  this  long 
voyage,  and  the  colonists  were  obliged  to  provision  her 
for  the  homeward  voyage,  which  they  did,  much  to  their 
own  inconvenience. 

The  Fortune  sailed  on  the  thirteenth  of  December  with 
a  full  cargo  of  beaver,  boards,  &c.  MrCushman  returned 
to  give  the  adventurers  full  information  as  to  the  state  of 
the  colony,  but  the  vessel  was  unfortunately  captured  and 
plundered  by  the  French  on  her  homeward  passage. 

After  her  departure,  the  governor  and  his  assistant 
distributed  the  new  comers  amongst  the  several  families, 
and  having  ascertained  that  all  the  provisions  would 
barely  subsist  them  for  three  months  on  full  allowance, 
the  whole  company  were  reduced  to  half  allowance, 
and  to  this  privation  they  submitted  with  the  greatest 
cheerfulness. 

Mr  Cushman  was  the  bearer  of  a  letter  from  Weston  to 
Governor  Carver,  in  which  he  wrote,  '  we  have  procured 
a  charter  the  best  we  could,  better  than  your  former,  and 
with  less  limitations.'  At  this  time  they  had  built  seven 
dwelling  houses,  (four,  for  the  use  of  the  plantation,)  and 
had  gathered  the  materials  for  several  others. 

Early  in  the  following  year,  (1622)  the  Narragansetts 
learning  that  the  vessel  which  had  lately  departed  had 
brought  neither  provision  nor  arms,  began  to  threaten  the 

William  Palmer,  (probably  two  in  his     Thomas  Cushman, 

family,)  Austin  Nicolas  (Nicholas,) 

Jonathan  Brewster,  Widow  Foord  (probably  four  in  her 
Bennet  Morgan,  family,) 

Thomas  Flavell  and  his  Son,  Thomas  Morton, 

Hugh  Static  (Stacy,)  William  Bassite  (Bassett,  two  probably 
William  Beale,  in  his  family.) 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  g^ 

colonists  with  hostilities,  so  open  were  they  in  their  boasts 
that  the  English  received  from  the  neighboring  Indians 
constant  intelligence  of  their  threats  and  preparations. 

At  length  their  chief  sachem,  Caunonicus,  sent  a  herald, 
who,  after  inquiring  for  Squanto,  (who  was  absent,)  left  a 
bundle  of  arrows,  enclosed  in  a  rattlesnake's  skin.  When 
,  Squanto  returned  he  explained  the  meaning  of  the  em- 
blematic message.  It  imported  enmity,  and  was  in  fact 
a  challenge. 

The  gOTcrnor  after  consulting  the  settlers  despatched 
an  Indian  with  an  emblematic  answer  of  equal  significance, 
for  he  stuffed  the  skin  with  gunpowder  and  bullets,  and  re- 
turned it  to  Caunonicus,  assuring  him  also  by  the  mouth  of 
his  interpreter,  that  if  he  had  shipping  he  would  not  trou- 
ble him  to  come  so  far  as  Plymouth  to  gratify  his  wish 
for  fighting,  but  would  have  sought  him  in  his  own 
country  ;  and  he  further  assured  him  that  whenever  he  did 
come  he  should  be  prepared  to  receive  him. 

This  resolute  message  intimidated  the  sachem.  Fearful 
of  injury,  he  refused  to  touch  the  skin,  neither  would  he 
suffer  it  to  remain  in  his  house.  It  passed  about  through 
several  hands,  and  at  length  was  returned  to  the  English 
unopened. 

Apprehensive  of  hostilities,  the  settlers  resolved  to 
impale  the  town  ;  this  was  effected  during  the  month  of 
February. —  They  also  enclosed  a  part  of  the  hill,  and 
made  four  bulwarks  or  jetties  without  the  pale.  In  three 
of  these  bulwarks  there  were  gates  which  were  kept 
locked  at  night,  and  watch  and  ward  was  kept  through 
the  day.  The  ground  which  they  enclosed  was  enough 
to  supply  a  garden  for  each  family. 

The  governor  and  captain  then  divided  the  whole 
force  into  four  squadrons,  and  appointed  a  commander  to 


88  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

each,  assigned  their  posts,  at  which  they  directed  each 
squadron,  (in  case  of  alarm)  to  station  itself.  During 
the  absence  of  the  captain,  the  captains  of  the  squadrons 
were  to  command. 

After  completing  the  arrangement,  each  commander 
drew  off  his  command  to  the  post  which  had  been  as- 
signed to  him,  and  after  a  salute,  the  commanders  were 
escorted  by  their  several  companies  to  their  respective 
houses,  where  they  were  again  saluted  in  a  military 
manner. 

One  of  the  companies  was  directed  to  attend  particu- 
larly to  fires,  to  surround  any  building  which  should  be  on 
fire,  and  facing  outwards  repel  any  treacherous  attempt 
with  their  arms,  while  others  who  were  designated  for  the 
purpose,  should  extinguish  the  fires. 

In  making  these  arrangements,  Standish  had  the  prin- 
cipal share.  Every  precaution  was  taken  by  this  wise  and 
valiant  commander,  (who  had  been  a  soldier  by  pro- 
fession, and  had  served  in  the  wars  of  the  Low  Coun- 
tries,) to  preserve  the  safety  and  existence  of  this  feeble 
colony. 

He  made  these  pious  and  austere  pilgrims  attentive 
even  to  the  forms  of  military  etiquette,  for  he  well  knew 
that  the  cultivation  of  a  martial  spirit  was  their  only  safe- 
guard against  the  dangers  with  which  they  were  sur- 
rounded. 

All  the  colonists  had  followed  peaceful  occupations. 
Standish  was  the  only  soldier  amongst  them; — the  task 
therefore  fell  upon  him,  to  form  them  to  habits  of  disci- 
pline and  watchfulness,  and  to  teach  them  to  rely  in  some 
degree  upon  human  means  for  their  preservation. 

Another  expedition  being  about  to  proceed  on  another 
trading  voyage  to  the  Massachusetts,  Hobbomock  endea- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  89 

vored  to  excite  their  apprehensions  respecting  a  confed- 
eracy between  the  Massachusetts  and  the  Narragansetts, 
and  represented  to  them  that  by  dividing  their  force  all 
might  be  in  danger  of  being  destroyed, —  that  Standish, 
who  had  the  charge  of  the  trading  expedition  and  his 
company,  might  be  destroyed  by  the  Massachusetts ;  and 
that  the  Narragansetts  might,  in  his  absence,  attack  the 
town  with  superior  numbers,  and  destroy  it ;  and  he  inti- 
mated that  Squanto  was  in  the  plot,  and  would  endeavor 
to  entice  Standish's  men  from  the  shallop  to  the  Indian 
huts,  where  they  could  be  destroyed  with  more  ease. 

Notwithstanding  this  alarming  information,  Standish 
resolved  to  proceed,  and  taking  Hobbomock  and  Squanto 
and  ten  others,  he  set  sail. 

After  they  had  weathered  the  point  of  the  harbor  called 
the  Gurnet's  nose,  being  becalmed,  they  anchored  ;  while 
at  anchor,  an  Indian  of  Squanto's  family,  with  his  face 
covered  with  blood,  ran  into  the  town  in  apparent  alarm, 
(frequently  looking  behind  him  as  though  he  was  pursued, 
and  calling  upon  the  people  who  were  in  the  fields  to  re- 
turn home,)  and  informed  the  governor  that  there  were  many 
Narragansetts,  together  with  Massasoiet  and  Corbitant 
and  many  others  at  Namasket,  who  were  determined  to 
assault  the  town  in  the  absence  of  Standish,  and  that  he 
had  been  wounded  for  speaking  in  behalf  of  the  English, 
and  escaped  death  by  flight. 

This  information  induced  the  governor  to  order  the 
ordnance,  which  consisted  of  three  pieces,  to  be  dis- 
charged ;  the  report  being  heard  by  Standish  and  the 
crew  of  the  shallop,  they  immediately  returned. 

As  soon  as  Hobbomock  had  ascertained  the  cause  of  the 
alarm,  he  positively  denied  Massasoiet's  participation  in  the 
design,  and  assured  the  English  that  he  would  never  have 
12 


90  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

undertaken  an  enterprise  of  such  importance  without  con- 
sulting his  captains,  of  whom  he  was  one. 

The  governor  prevailed  upon  Hobbomock  to  send  his 
wife  privately  to  Pokanoket,  and  without  discovering  her 
errand  to  Massasoiet  or  any  one  else,  to  ascertain  the  truth. 
Finding  all  things  tranquil,  she  informed  Massasoiet  of  the 
alarm  at  Plymouth,  and  he  was  excessively  incensed 
against  Squanto,  but  he  sent  his  thanks  to  the  governor 
when  he  learned  that  his  good  opinion  of  him  had  not  been 
shaken,  and  he  directed  the  Squaw  to  assure  the  governor 
that  he  should  faithfully  adhere  to  the  terms  of  the  treaty, 
and  would  give  him  instant  information  of  any  plot  which 
should  come  to  his  knowledge.  The  English  suspected  that 
Squanto's  main  object  was  to  magnify  himself  in  the  eyes 
of  his  countrymen,  by  inducing  them  to  believe  that  he 
had  a  controlling  influence  in  their  councils,  and  that  he 
held  in  his  own  hand  the  power  of  war,  or  of  peace,  and 
they  heard  of  his  practices  to  obtain  gifts  by  giving  pri- 
vate information  to  the  natives  that  they  intended  to  kill 
them  but  that  he  could  prevent  it,  in  consequence  of 
which  he  deluded  many.  Some  held  him  in  more  estima- 
tion than  their  own  sachems,  and  even  the  followers  of 
Massasoiet  began  to  fall  off,  and  to  rely  on  Squanto  for 
protection.  It  was,  perhaps,  after  all,  but  natural  for 
Squanto  who  does  not  seem  to  have  possessed  much  in- 
fluence with  the  natives  at  the  time  of  the  arrival  of  the 
English,  to  endeavor  to  make  the  most  of  their  favor.  His 
knowledge  of  the  English  language  gave  him  a  decided 
advantage  over  all  others.  His  own  small  tribe  had  been 
exterminated  by  the  plague.  He  was  a  solitary  man,  un- 
aided by  the  influence  or  favor  of  kindred,  and  he  only 
used  the  means  which  fortune  had  placed  in  his  hands  to 
acquire  wealth,  consideration  and  influence.  Another  of 
his  devices  to  magnify  the   power   of   the  English,   and, 


Memoir  of  Plymouth  colony.     *  gj 

consequently,  his  own,  was  to  persuade  the  natives  that 
the  English  had  buried  the  plague  in  their  storehouse,  and 
that  they  could  loose  it  at  will  and  ravage  the  whole 
country.  The  apprehension  of  this  kept  the  Indians  in  great 
fear.  The  ground  being  broken  in  the  store  house  in  the 
presence  both  of  Hobbomock  and  Squanto,  and  some  bar- 
rels containing  gunpowder  being  disclosed,  Hobbomock 
naturally  inquired  of  Squanto  what  they  were  ?  He  answer- 
ed without  hesitation  that  this  was  the  place  where  the 
plague  was  buried,  of  which,  he  had  formerly  told  him 
and  others.  Hobbomock  inquired  of  an  Englishman  if  it 
was  so,  but  he  undeceived  him,  informing  him  at  the 
same  time  that  the  God  of  the  English  possessed  it,  and 
could  use  it  for  the  destruction  of  his  own  enemies  and 
the  enemies  of  the  English. 

The  Indians  were  also  undeceived  as  to  the  extent  of 
Squanto's  influence,  the  English  assuring  them  of  their 
friendly  disposition,  and  that  such  reports  could  only  ori- 
ginate with  those  who  were  liars,  and  who  meant  to  excite 
disturbances.  They  were  pacified  by  these  assurances, 
but  Squanto's  duplicity  was  resented  so  much,  particu- 
larly by  Massasoiet,  that  after  his  departure  from  Plymouth, 
whither  he  had  gone  to  justify  himself,  a  messenger 
was  sent  to  the  governor  to  entreat  him  to  put  Squanto 
to  death  ;  the  governor  admitted  that  he  deserved  death, 
yet  he  was  anxious  that  his  life  should  be  spared  for  the 
sake  both  of  the  English  and  the  Indians,  for  without  him 
they  could  scarcely  hold  any  intercourse,  as  no  other  per- 
son had  a  knowledge  of  both  languages. 

Massasoiet  was  not  satisfied,  but  sent  several  messengers 
to  demand  that  Squanto  should  be  given  up,  as  he  was 
his  subject,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  treaty. 

So  anxious  was  he  to  get  Squanto  into  his  hands,  that 
he  offered  the  governor  many  beaver   skins.      With  his 


92  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

messengers  the  chief  sent  his  own  knife  for  the  avowed 
purpose  of  cutting  off  Squanto's  head  and  hands,  but  the 
governor  disdaining  to  sell  his  life,  refused  the  present, 
although  he  assured  the  messengers  that  Squanto  had 
justly  forfeited  it  by  his  falsehood  and  deceit. 

He  however  sent  for  Squanto,  who  readily  yielded  him- 
self, and  submitted  his  life  without  the  least  apparent 
reluctance  to  the  will  of  the  governor,  but  he  charged 
Hobbomock  with  being  the  author  of  his  ruin. 

The  governor  with  much  reluctance  at  length  deter- 
mined to  yield  him  to  the  executioners  of  Massasoiet,  but 
at  the  moment,  a  boat  appearing  in  the  bay,  and  an  alarm 
being  given  that  the  French  were  approaching,  and  the 
governor  being  uncertain  as  to  the  extent  of  the  connec- 
tion between  the  French  and  the  Indians,  refused  to  de- 
liver Squanto  into  the  hands  of  the  messengers  until  he 
had  ascertained  the  character  of  the  crew  who  were  in  the 
boat ;  and  they  being  angered  at  his  reluctance  and  delay, 
departed  in  a  great  rage. 

The  boat  however  proved  to  be  the  shallop  belonging 
to  a  ship  of  Thomas  Weston's,  called  the  Sparrow,  whb 
had  been  fishing  near  Munhiggon,*  and  they  learned  that 
there  were  forty  sail  of  English  vessels  engaged  in  fishing. 
The  governor  despatched  Edward  Winslow  to  purchase 
provisions  of  these  fishermen,  who  being  poorly  supplied, 
refused  to  sell  any,  but  generously  gave  them  enough  for 
their  immediate  necessity,  but  not  sufficient  for  all  their 
wants.  Captain  John  Huddlestone  deserves  to  be  men- 
tioned on  this  occasion  for  his  great  generosity.  The 
supply  was  opportune  ;  the  colony  was  entirely  destitute 
of  bread,  and  they  obtained  sufficient  to  supply  each  per- 
son with  a  quarter  of  a  pound  daily  until  the  harvest- 

*  Near  Penobscot. 


Memoir  of  Plymouth  colony.  93 

The  sea-fowl  frequented  their  waters  during  the  winter, 
the  latter  part  of  autumn,  and  the  early  part  of  the  spring 
only,  and  it  was  now  summer. 

The  colonists  were  unprovided  with  fishing  gear. 
They  had  been  compelled  to  live  upon  clams  and  other 
shell  fish,  which  they  found  in  the  sands,  and  they  were 
excessively  debilitated  from  the  want  of  food.  The 
Indians  discovered  their  weakness,  and  meditated  their 
destruction,  and  boasted  how  easily  they  could  effect  it. 
Their  designs  came  to  the  knowledge  of  the  settlers, 
and  their  fears  were  heightened  by  news  which  they 
learned  from  captain  Huddlestone,  of  a  horrible  massa- 
cre which  had  been  perpetrated  by  the  natives  upon  the 
English,  in  Virginia. 

Induced  by  these  circumstances,  they  set  about  the 
erection  of  a  fortification,  which  was  placed  on  a  hill 
back  of  the  town,  and  although  they  were  obliged  to  ne- 
glect their  agriculture,  they  completed  the  fort,  building  it 
strongly  of  limber,  with  a  flat  roof  and  battlements ;  on 
this  roof  they  mounted  the  ordnance  and  kept  constant 
watch.  The  lower  part  served  them  for  a  meeting  house 
or  place  of  worship. 

Such  was  the  character  of  these  times,  and  of  these 
men.  The  temple  of  the  Lord  was  defended  by  cannon, 
and  his  worshippers  were  armed  men  ;  they  held  the  sword 
in  one  hand  and  the  bible  in  the  other. 

Previous  to  this  time,  they  had  made  another  trading 
voyage  to  the  Massachusetts,  and  met  with  good  success. 

They  planted  sixty  acres  to  corn,  and  their  gardens 
were  filled  with  vegetables  ;  their  numbers  amounted  to 
an  hundred,  free  from  sickness,  but  much  debilitated. 

About  midsummer  two  ships  arrived  called  the  Charity 
and  the  Swan,  which  were  sent  out  by  Weston  (who  had 
obtained  a  patent  from  the  adventurers,)  to  commence  a 


94  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

plantation  ;  and  he  had  sent  over  at  his  own  charge  fifty 
or  sixty  idle  and  profligate  persons  to  undertake  an  enter- 
prise which  could  only  succeed  under  the  management  of 
men  who  were  adventurous,  industrious,  sober,  sagacious, 
and  hardy  ;  and  who  were  willing  to  submit  to  every  pri- 
vation. 

This  rabble  were  treated  kindly  and  courteously  by  the 
colonists,  and  to  requite  them,  they  wasted  their  pro- 
visions, and  committed  numberless  thefts,  taking  in  the 
night,  their  green  and  growing  corn,  and  assisting  them 
but  little  in  its  culture. 

The  Charity  soon  sailed  for  Virginia. 

Weston's  company  sent  out  an  exploring  party,  who 
soon  returned  and  reported  in  favor  of  a  place  called 
Wessagusset*  or  Wessaguscus,  on  the  Massachusetts  Bay. 
To  this  place  they  soon  repaired,  (much  to  the  joy  of  the 
Plymouth  people,)  leaving  their  sick  behind,  who  were 
soon  cured  without  charge  by  Mr  Fuller,  the  physician 
and  surgeon  of  the  settlement,  and  they  joined  the  com- 
pany at  Wessagusset. 

The  settlers  at  Wessagusset  soon  excited  the  enmity 
of  the  neighboring  Indians  by  the  profligacy  of  their  car- 
riage, and  their  frequent  thefts. 

Complaint  was  made  of  their  outrages  to  the  governor 
of  Plymouth,  who  endeavored  to  prevent  the  evil  by  fre- 
quent admonitions,  but  without  much  effect. 

About  the  latter  part  of  the  month  of  August,  two  other 
ships  came  into  the  harbor,  one  of  which  was  called  the 
Discovery,  and  was  commanded  by  Capt.  Jones,  the  for- 
mer commander  of  the  May  Flower.  The  other  was 
Weston's  vessel,  the  Sparrow,  which  had  completed  her 
fishing  voyage. 

*  Now  Weymouth. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  95 

Captain  Jones  supplied  the  settlers  with  some  articles, 
such  as  they  could  exchange  with  the  natives  for  pro- 
visions. Their  crop  of  corn  proved  so  scanty,  partly  :  in 
consequence  of  their  inability  through  weakness  from  the 
want  of  food  to  attend  to  its  culture,  and  the  pressure  of 
other  business,  and  partly  from  the  depredations  of  Wes- 
ton's company,  that  they  were  in  danger  of  famine. 
Jones  took  an  ungenerous  advantage  of  their  necessities, 
and  compelled  them  to   pay  the  most  exorbitant  prices. 

John  Porey,  who  had  been  secretary  of  the  Virginia 
Colony,  and  was  about  to  return  home,  was  a  passenger 
in  the  Charity,  and  from  personal  observation  he  was  in- 
duced to  represent  the  colony  so  favorably  in  England, 
that  it  acquired  new  and  powerful  friends. 

The  Charity  returned  to  England  about  the  end  of 
September,  but  the  Sparrow  was  retained  at  Wessagusset. 

The  planters  at  Wessagusset  having  wasted  their  pro- 
visions ;  fearful  of  approaching  want,  and  hearing  that 
the  Plymouth  people  had  purchased  many  articles  of 
Jones  for  the  purpose  of  traffic,  desired  to  enter  into  co- 
partnership with  them  and  offered  their  small  vessel  for 
that  service.  Their  object  was  to  purchase  corn  from  the 
Indians.  An  agreement  was  made  between  them  and  the 
governor  of  Plymouth  and  his  assistant,  but  they  were 
delayed  by  the  death  of  Richard  Green,  the  brother-in-law 
of  Weston,  who  had  charge  of  the  colony  at  Wessagus- 
set, and  who  died  suddenly  at  Plymouth.  They  intended 
to  visit  the  south  side  of  Cape  Cod,  and  took  Squanto, 
(who  had  now  reconciled  himself  to  Massasoiet,)  for  a  pilot, 
he  pretending  that  he  could  pilot  them  within  the  shoals. 
Captain  Standish  was  to  hove  commanded  the  expedition, 
but  being  driven  back  twice  by  violent  winds,  and  falling 
ill  of  a  fever,  governor  Bradford  took  the  command  him- 
self, and  after  encountering  some  hazard   from  the  shoals, 


96  .       MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

he  made  for  a  harbor  at  a  place  called  Mannamoyck,* 
and  after  sounding  through  a  narrow  and  intricate  chan- 
nel, anchored.  The  governor,  attended  by  Squanto, 
went  on  shore,  but  the  natives  were  shy  of  intercourse  for 
some  time,  at  length,  understanding  his  intentions,  they 
threw  off  their  reserve,  and  welcomed  him  with  much 
apparent  joy,  feasting  him  and  his  company  on  venison 
and  other  food, —  yet  so  jealous  were  they  when  they  as- 
certained that  the  governor  intended  to  remain  on  shore 
during  the  night,  that  they  carefully  removed  their  pro- 
perty from  their  habitations.  Squanto  having  succeeded 
in  persuading  them  that  the  intentions  of  the  English 
were  good,  they  were  at  length  induced  to  sell  them  eight 
hogsheads  of  corn  and  beans. 

They  intended  to  have  proceeded  farther  down  the  Cape, 
being  assured  both  by  Squanto  and  the  Indians  of  Man- 
namoyck that  there  was  a  safe  passage,  but  their  design 
was  frustrated  by  the  sudden  sickness  of  Squanto,  who 
was  seized  with  a  fever  so  violent,,  that  it  soon  occasioned 
his  death,  to  the  great  grief  of  the  Governor. 

Although  Squanto  had  discovered  some  traits  of  du- 
plicity, yet  his  loss  was  justly  deemed  a  public  misfor- 
tune, as  he  had  rendered  the  English  much  service.  A 
short  time  previous  to  his  death,  he  requested  the  gov- 
ernor to  pray  that  he  might  go  to  the  Englishman's 
God  in  heaven,  and  he  bequeathed  his  little  property  to  his 
English  friends  as  remembrances  of  his  love. 

The  Indians  of  Massachusetts  having  promised  the 
English  to  plant  corn  abundantly  for  the  purpose  of  traffic  ; 
when  the  wind  came  fair,  the  governor  sailed  down  the  bay, 
and  reaching    the  place   of  his  destination,  he  had  the 

"  Now  Chatham. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  97 

misfortune  to  find  most  of  the  Indians  afflicted  with  a 
deadly  disorder,  not  unlike  the  plague. 

Such  had  been  the  folly  and  improvidence  of  Weston's 
people  in  trafficking  with  them,  that  a  quart  of  corn  was 
estimated  as  high  as  a  beaver  skin,  and  so  imprudent  and 
vicious  had  been  their  conduct,  that  the  affections  of  the 
natives  were  totally  alienated. 

Finding  no  prospect  of  trading  to  any  advantage,  they 
sailed  for  Nauset,  where  they  were  received  with  much 
kindness,  and  purchased  eight  or  ten  hogsheads  of  corn 
and  beans,  and  proceeding  to  Mattachiest,  obtained 
more. 

During  this  expedition  they  suffered  much  from  violent 
storms.  The  ship  was  in  danger  and  the  shallop  was  cast 
away  ;  they  had  no  means  of  getting  the  corn  on  board 
the  ship,  as  she  could  not  ride  in  much  less  distance  than 
two  leagues  from  the  shore,  and  the  ship's  boat  was  too 
small  and  leaky  for  that  purpose. 

The  governor  caused  the  corn  to  be  stacked,  covered  it 
with  mats  and  sedge,  and  entrusted  it  to  the  keeping  of 
the  natives,  promising  a  reward  to  him  who  dwelt  nearest 
to  it  for  attending  to  its  safety.  The  Indian  undertook 
the  trust,  and  the  sachem  assured  his  fidelity.  The  shallop 
being  found  almost  buried  in  the  sand,  but  containing 
articles  of  little  value  for  present  purposes,  was  put  under 
the  care  of  the  sachem. 

The  governor  then  procured  a  guide,  and  set  out  on 
foot  for  Plymouth.  He  was  treated  with  much  respect  by 
all  the  natives  whom  he  met  in  his  journey,  and  arrived 
in  safety,  after  travelling  fifty  miles.  The  vessel  arrived  a 
few  days  after.  The  corn  being  divided,  Weston's  com- 
pany went  to  their  own  plantation,  promising  to  return 
soon  with  their  carpenter,  (whose  services  were  wanted  at 
13 


98  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Plymouth,)  to  bring    away   the  corn    which    had    been 
stacked,  and  to  recover  the  shallop. 

At  their  return,  Captain  Standish  having  recovered  his 
health,  took  the  command  of  another  shallop  and  went 
with  them  to  Nauset,  where  the  corn  was  found,  undis- 
turbed. Having  repaired  the  shallop  which  had  been 
wrecked,  they  got  all  the  corn  on  board. 

While  at  Nauset  an  Indian  having  stolen  a  few  beads 
and  other  trifles  from  one  of  the  shallops,  complaint  was 
made  to  the  sachem,  accompanied  by  many  threats  if  the 
stolen  articles  were  not  returned.  The  sachem  soon 
restored  the  articles,  and  informed  the  captain  that  he  had 
severely  beaten  the  thief.  He  grieved  much  that  such  an 
act  should  have  been  committed,  and  the  women  were 
required  to  make  bread  and  to  carry  it  to  the  English  to 
pacify  them. 

They  then  returned  to  Plymouth,  and  the  corn  was 
equally  divided.  After  this  the  governor  with  some 
attendants  went  to  Namasket  to  secure  another  supply,  in 
which  he  succeeded. 

The  governor  then  visited  Manomet,*  a  place  which  was 
governed  by  Canaucum,  one  of  the  subscribers  to  the  act  of 
submission,  by  whom  he  was  kindly  received.  While  he  was 
there  an  incident  occurred  which  not  only  served  to  show 
the  respect  and  consideration  in  which  Canaucum  was 
holden,  but  is  peculiarly  illustrative  of  the  Indian  charac- 
ter. Two  Indians  of  Monamoyck  came  into  the  sachem's 
wigwam  in  a  night  of  excessive  coldness.  Having  laid 
aside  their  bows  and  quivers,  they  sat  down  at  the  fire 
without  uttering  a  word,  and  began  to  smoke  ;  their 
pipes  being  finished,  one  of  them  addressed  Canaucum 
in  a  short   speech,  and  presented   him   with  a  basket  of 

*  The  part  of  Sandwich  which  lies  on  Manomet  river. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  99 

tobacco,  and  some  beads.  He  then  delivered  a  long 
speech,  which  Hobbomock,  who  attended  the  govern- 
or, interpreted  to  him. 

The  Indians  are  almost  without  exception  desperate  gam- 
blers, staking  (when  pushed)  the  clothes  on  their  backs, 
and  even  their  wives'  clothes,  and  literally  stripping  them- 
selves naked  to  satisfy  the  winner.  This  desperate  spirit  of 
gambling,  was  sometimes  productive  of  fatal  conse- 
quences. 

Two  of  the  tribe  to  which  the  messengers  belonged, 
quarrelled,  while  gaming,  and  one  killed  the  other.  The 
murderer  was  a  powaw  or  priest,  a  man  of  great  dis- 
tinction and  of  much  use  in  his  own  community,  but 
another  tribe  of  great  power  had  threatened  them  with 
war,  unless  they  would  put  the  offender  to  death.  He 
had  been  imprisoned  and  the  sachem  was  in  great  doubt 
as  to  the  course  which  it  was  proper  for  him  to  pursue, 
and  anxiously  desired  the  advice  of  Canaucum.  After 
a  long  silence,  the  opinions  of  those  who  were  present 
were  taken,  and  Canaucum  also  requested  the  advice  of 
Hobbomock,  who  answered  '  that  he  was  a  stranger  to  them, 
but  thought  it  better  that  one  should  die  than  many,  since 
he  had  deserved  it,  and  the  rest  were  innocent.'  Canau- 
cum then  directed  the  messengers  to  tell  their  sachem,  that 
in  his  opinion  the  murderer  should  be  put  to  death. 

In  February  (1623)  an  Indian  came  to  Plymouth  with  a 
letter  from  John  Sanders,  (who  had  the  charge  of  Weston's 
plantation,)  representing  the  great  distress  into  which  the 
planters  had  fallen.  They  had  exhausted  their  provisions 
and  could  borrow  no  corn  from  the  natives,  and  were  near 
starving,  and  he  requested  the  governor  to  advise  him 
whether  he  might  take  the  corn  from  the  Indians  by  force 
to  relieve  his  starving  men,  but  the  governor  strongly  dis- 
suaded him   from  such  a  course  ;  he  advised  him  of  the 


100  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

danger  to  which  both  plantations  might  be  exposed  iri 
consequence  of  the  just  exasperation  of  the  natives,  that 
the  constant  depredations  upon  their  corn  had  already  in- 
censed them,  and  that  the  people  of  Wessagusset  could 
subsist  themselves  as  the  Plymouth  people  had  frequently 
done  on  shell  fish,  and  ground  nuts. 

So  totally  destitute  of  good  faith  were  these  wretched 
men  to  each  other,  that  some  of  them  informed  the  Indians 
that  their  corn  was  about  to  be  taken  from  them  by  force. 
This  information  was  the  cause  of  a  conspiracy  which 
came  near  being  general  amongst  the  Indians  against  both 
settlements. 

Upon  the  reception  of  the  governor's  letter,  Sanders 
went  to  Plymouth,  and  the  governor  spared  him  a  small 
quantity  of  corn  from  the  small  stock  of  the  colony.  He 
then  set  sail  in  a  shallop  for  Monhiggon,*  to  procure  far- 
ther supplies,  being  wholly  ignorant  of  the  conspiracy  of 
the  Indians. 

His  company  in  the  meantime  fell  into  great  straits  ; 
many  sold  their  bed  coverings  and  even  their  clothes  ; 
some  were  so  debased,  that  for  the  sake  of  a  little  food, 
they  became  servants  to  the  Indians,  cutting  their  wood, 
and  carrying  their  water. —  Some  subsisted  altogether  by 
stealing  from  them. —  Some  died  of  hunger,  and  one,  in 
consequence  of  his  extreme  weakness,  was  unable  to  ex- 
tricate himself  from  the  mud  where  he  was  gathering 
clams,  and  perished.  Most  of  them  abandoned  their 
dwellings,  and  wandered  up  and  down  by  the  sea-shore, 
and  in  the  woods,  gathering  clams  and  ground  nuts. —  One 
became  a  savage,  abandoned  his  company  and  joined 
himself  to  the  natives.  So  miserable  and  contemptible 
had    they  become,  that  when  their    food   was    prepared 

*  A  plantation  of  Sir  Ferdinand  Gorges  in  Maine,  near  Penobscot. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 


101 


the  Indians  would  take  it  from  them  and  eat  it  before 
their  eyes  :  —  they  would  seize  their  blankets  when  they 
had  lain  down^  to  rest,  and  leave  them  to  encounter  the 
cold  air  naked.  They  even  hung  one  of  the  company  to 
satisfy  the  Indians  on  account  of  some  thefts.* 

One  of  them  by  the  name  of  Phineas  Pratt,  became 
so  much  alarmed  for  the  probable  fate  of  the  whole, 
that  he  abandoned  them,  and  without  any  knowledge 
of  the  way,  wandered  through  the  woods  until  he  reached 
the  plantation  at  Plymouth  in  safety,  although  his  ab- 
sence was  noticed,  and  he   was  pursued  by  two  Indians. 

*  See  Hudibras. 


(        102       ) 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Expedition  of  Standish  against  the  Indians  of  Wessagusset. — Its  success. — Wes- 
ton's Plantation  broken  up  and  abandoned. — Proofs  of  the  Conspiracy  of  the 
Indians. — Journey  of  Edward  Winslow  and  John  Hampden  to  Visit  Massa- 
soiet. — Distress  of  the  Indians,  and  their  submission. — "Weston  comes  over. — 
His  misfortunes. — Quarrels  with  Gorges. — His  injustice  to  Plymouth. 

On  the  day  preceding  the  arrival  of  Pratt,  the  yearly 
court  had  been  convened. 

The  governor,  unwilling  to  make  war  on  his  own  res- 
ponsibility, laid  before  the  whole  assembled  company  the 
circumstances  which  induced  him  to  suppose  that  the  In- 
dians contemplated  hostilities. 

It  was  resolved  by  the  company,  that  Captain  Stan- 
dish  should  take  with  him  as  many  men  as  he  deemed 
to  be  necessary  for  encountering  all  the  Indians  in  the 
Massachusetts  Bay :  —  that  he  should  conceal  his  in- 
tentions and  pretend  to  trade  as  usual,  but  should  dis- 
close his  design  to  Weston's  people,  and  secure  Wat- 
tawamut,  a  bold  and  bloody  warrior,  and  bring  home 
his  head,  (his  hostile  intentions  being  well  known.) 
Such  were  the  instructions  to  Standish  ;  whereupon  he 
made  choice  of  eight  men,  refusing  to  take  more,  although 
many  more  were  willing  to  go  ; — but  he  thought  this 
small  force  would  excite  no  jealousy. 

The  information  brought  by  Pratt  was  of  such  a  nature, 
that  Standish  was  induced  to  proceed  to  Wessagusset 
without  delay.     On  his  arrival,  he  found  the  ship  empty, 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  iqS 

but  upon  discharging  a  musket,  the  captain  and  some 
others,  who  had  been  gathering  ground-nuts,  shewed 
themselves. 

Standish  reproved  them  severely  for  their  carelessness, 
but  they  seemed  to  be  under  no  apprehensions  of  the  In- 
dians, informing  him  that  they  lived  and  lodged  with  them 
without  arms.  Upon  ascertaining  that  the  men  to  whom 
Sanders  had  committed  the  charge  of  the  colony,  and  who 
were  most  in  his  confidence  were  at  the  plantation,  he 
went  thither  and  disclosed  his  design,  laying  before  them 
the  proofs  of  the  conspiracy,  but  telling  them  that  if  they 
could  devise  any  other  mode  to  secure  their  own  safety, 
he  would  assist  them  with  all  his  force. 

Upon  comparing  his  intelligence  with  circumstances 
which  came  within  their  own  knowledge,  they  were  con- 
vinced, and  wondered  much  that  they  had  escaped  de- 
struction so  long.  Standish  enjoining  strict  secresy,  caused 
them  to  call  all  the  company  into  the  town,  and  ordered 
a  pint  of  corn  to  be  issued  to  each  man  daily,  although 
it  was  taken  from  the  seed  corn  of  the  Plymouth  people. 

An  Indian  soon  came  to  him  with  furs,  under  pretence 
of  trading,  but  although  the  captain  maintained  a  calm 
demeanor,  the  Indian  was  not  deceived.  On  his  return 
to  his  own  people,  he  reported  of  Standish  that  '  he  saw 
by  his  eyes,  that  he  was  angry  in  his  heart.'  The  Indians 
then  began  to  suspect  that  they  were  discovered. 

Pecksuot,  a  paniese  or  warrior,  a  man  of  great  courage, 
told  Hobbomock  '  that  he  understood  the  captain  was 
come  to  kill  him  and  the  rest  of  the  Indians  there.'  '  Tell 
him,  (said  he,)  we  know  it,  but  fear  him  not,  neither  will 
we  shun  him,  but  let  him  begin  when  he  dare,  he  will  not 
take  us  unawares.'  Many  of  the  Indians  would  sharpen 
their  knives  before  the  captain's  face,  and  insult  him  both 
in  speech  and  gesture.   Wittawamut  boasted  of  the  excel- 


104  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

lence  of  his  knife.  '  On  the  end  of  the  handle  there  was 
pictured  a  woman's  face ;  but,  said  he,  I  have  another  at 
home,  wherewith  I  have  killed  both  French  and  English, 
and  that  hath  a  man's  face  on  it ;  and  by  and  by  these  two 
must  marry.'  Further  he  said  of  his  knife,  '  by  and  by  it 
should  see,  and  by  and  by  it  should  eat,  but  not  speak.' 

Standish  was  small  of  stature  j  Pecksuot,  who  was  very 
large,  told  him  '  though  he  were  a  great  captain  yet  he 
was  but  a  little  man  ;  and,  (said  he,)  though  I  be  no  sa- 
chem, yet  I  am  a  man  of  great  strength  and  courage.' 
The  temper  of  Standish  was  fiery,  but  he  bore  these  in- 
sults with  much  patience.  On  the  next  day,  Pecksuot, 
Wittawamut,  another  Indian,  and  Wittawamut's  brother, 
a  youth  of  eighteen,  whose  deportment  had  been  in- 
sulting in  the  extreme,  being  together,  Standish  having 
an  equal  number  of  his  own  men  in  the  same  room,  gave 
the  signal.  The  door  being  fastened,  he  snatched  the 
knife  which  Pecksuot  wore  about  his  neck,  and  after  a 
horrible  struggle,  succeeded  in  despatching  him  by  plung- 
ing it  into  his  bosom.  Wittawamut  and  the  other  Indian 
were  killed.  The  brother  of  Wittawamut  was  taken,  and 
afterwards  hanged.  The  Indians  died  with  great  courage, 
scarcely  uttering  a  sound,  and  defending  themselves  to 
the  last. 

During  the  contest,  Hobbomock  stood  by  without  inter- 
fering, apparently  observing  the  conduct  of  the  English. 
After  it  had  terminated,  he  addressed  Standish  ;  '  yester- 
day, Pecksuot,  bragging  of  his  own  strength  and  stature, 
said,  though  you  were  a  great  captain,  yet  you  were  but 
a  little  man  ;  but  to  day  I  see  you  are  big  enough  to  lay 
him  on  the  ground.' 

Two  more  Indians  were  killed  by  the  others.  Another 
was  killed  at  another  place  by  the  Plymouth  party,  and 
one  escaped  to  his  countrymen  with  the  news. 


,  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  j  05 

The  captured  Indian  women  were  placed  in  the  custody 
of  Weston's  people. 

Standish  taking  one  half  of  his  men,  and  one  or  two  of 
Weston's,  went  out  in  pursuit  of  the  Indians.  He  soon 
discovered  a  company  of  them  advancing  in  single  file. 
A  small  hill  lay  between  them  and  the  English,  which 
both  parties  strove  to  obtain.  Standish  succeeded.  The 
Indians  retreated,  and  sheltering  themselves  behind  trees, 
began  to  shoot  arrows,  aiming  principally  at  Hobbo- 
mock  and  the  commander.  Hobbomock  instantly  cast 
off  his  coat  and  ran  towards  them.  His  prowess  being 
well  known,  they  fled  from  him,  and  the  English  could 
scarcely  keep  pace  with  him  in  the  pursuit.  One  of  the 
Indians  aiming  at  Standish,  he,  and  one  of  his  men  firing 
at  the  same  time,  broke  his  arm,  and  the  natives  then 
fled  into  a  swamp.  The  English  attempted  to  parley,  but 
received  nothing  but  abuse.  Standish  challenged  the 
sachem  to  a  single  combat,  but  he  refused  and  fled:  — 
Standish  and  his  party  then  returned  to  the  plantation,  and 
released  the  women,  refusing  to  take  their  beaver  coats, 
and  oflfering  them  no  insult. 

Weston's  people  came  to  the  determination  to  abandon 
their  plantation,  and  to  go  to  Munhiggon  which  was  the 
resort  of  the  fishing  ships,  in  which,  they  expected  to  ob- 
tain a  passage  to  England. 

Standish  told  them  that  he  should  have  no  fear  in  resid- 
ing there  with  less  men  than  they  had  ;  yet  if  they  chose 
to  go,  he  was  ordered  by  the  governor  and  people  of  Ply- 
mouth to  supply  them  with  sufficient  corn  for  their  sub- 
sistence until  they  could  reach  the  fishing  ships,  and  he 
gave  them  nearly  his  whole  store.  Some  of  them  who 
were  unwilling  to  go  to  Munhiggon  he  took  with  him  to 
Plymouth,  and  after  seeing  the  others  under  sail,  and  clear 
14 


106  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

of  the  bay,  he  returned,  bearing  the  head  of  Wittawamut. 
which  he  placed  on  the  Fort. 

Such  was  the  miserable  termination  of  the  second  at- 
tempt of  the  English  to  colonize  New  England.  The 
cause  of  the  disasters  of  the  Wessagusset  and  the  suc- 
cess of  the  Plymouth  plantation,  may  be  traced  to  the 
different  characters  of  the  settlers  of  each. 

The  first  had  no  object  but  to  gain  subsistence  with 
little  trouble,  and  were  destitute  alike  of  morals  and  re- 
ligion. The  last  were  animated  by  higher  motives, 
motives  which  taught  them  self-denial,  patience,  justice, 
fortitude,  and  all  the  hardier  virtues.  The  first  sought 
only  to  gratify  their  animal  wants,  and  animal  pleasures; 
the  object  .of  the  last  was  to  rear  the  church  of  Christ 
in  the  wilderness,  and  to  maintain  the  freedom  of  their 
religious  opinions  at  all  hazards. 

Much  obloquy  has  been  thrown  on  the  characters 
of  the  Pilgrims  for  this  attack  upon  the  Indians.  The 
existence  of  the  conspiracy  is  said  to  have  been  ideal, 
and  it  is  confidently  asserted  in  modern  times  that  the  In- 
dians were  disposed  to  friendship  when  they  were  as- 
sailed by  Standish,  and  that  the  conspiracy  was  a  mere 
pretence  on  the  part  of  the  English  to  rid  themselves  of 
troublesome  neighbors,  and  to  acquire  their  country  ;  but 
any  one  who  examines  the  proofs  with  impartiality  will  be 
convinced  of  its  existence,  and  that  the  colonists  were 
actuated  neither  by  interest  nor  revenge,  but  only  endea- 
vored to  secure  their  own  safety  by  attacking  those,  who, 
when  their  projects  were  matured,  would  have  destroyed 
them. 

To  shew  this  more  clearly,  it  will  be  necessary  to  recur 
to  a  period  anterior  to  the  expedition  of  Captain  Standish 
to  Wessagusset. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  107 

In  the  month  of  February,  (1623,)  Standish  had  been 
despatched  with  a  shallop  to  Mattachiest ;  the  Indians 
received  him  with  apparent  kindness,  and  promised  him 
a  considerable  quantity  of  corn.  A  storm  came  on,  and 
the  harbor  was  filled  with  ice,  and  he  was  compelled  to 
remain  on  shore  through  the  night.  The  number  of  the 
savages  who  were  assembled  at  the  place  where  he  staid 
was  so  great,  that  he  suspected  their  intentions  to  be 
hostile,  and  ordered  his  men  to  keep  an  alternate  watch. 

An  Indian  stole  some  beads.  Standish,  who  had 
but  six  men,  invested  lyanough's  hut,  (in  which  nearly 
all  the  Indians  were  collected,)  threatening  to  attack  them 
if  the  beads  were  not  restored.  The  sachem,  discovering 
the  thief,  sent  him  secretly  to  the  shallop  with  them  ;  — 
he  laid  them  on  the  cuddy ;  Standish  was  then  desired 
to  search  the  boat   where  he  found  them. 

The  resolute  conduct  of  Standish  intimidated  the  In- 
dians so  much,  that  they  were  fearful  of  attempting  any- 
thing against  him  at  that  time,  but  endeavored  to  appease 
him  by  bringing  more  corn  for  traffic  than  had  been  pro- 
mised. From  this  time,  however,  the  Indians  were  watched 
and  suspected. 

In  the  following  month  of  March,  Standish  went  to  Ma- 
nomet  to  bring  away  some  corn  which  governor  Bradford 
had  previously  purchased.  He  was  coldly  received.  He 
was  at  Canaucum's  hut  at  some  distance  from  his  boat, 
and  only  two  or  three  of  his  own  men  with  him.  Two 
Massachusetts  Indians  came  into  the  hut,  one  of  whom 
was  Wittawamut,  whose  fate  has  been  already  related, 
who  boasted  of  his  having  killed  both  French  and  Eng- 
lish, 'and  derided  their  weakness,  especially  because,  as 
he  said,  they  died  crying,  making  sour  faces,  more  like 
children  than  men.' 


108  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY, 

Taking  a  dagger  from  his  neck,  he  presented  it  to  Ca- 
naucum,  and  addressed  him  in  a  long  speech,  in  which  he 
informed  him  that  '  the  Massachusetts  formerly  concluded 
to  ruinate  Master  Weston's  colony ;  and  thought  them- 
selves, being  about  thirty  or  forty  men,  strong  enough  to 
execute  the  same.  Yet  they  durst  not  attempt  it,  till  such' 
time  as  they  had  gathered  more  strength  to  themselves, 
to  make  their  party  good  against  Plymouth  ;  and  although 
he  had  no  other  arguments  to  use  against  the  Plymouth 
people,  yet  they  would  never  leave  the  death  of  their 
countrymen  unrevenged  ;  and  therefore  their  safety  could 
not  be  without  the  overthrow  of  both  plantations.  To 
this  end  they  had  formerly  solicited  this  sachem,  as  also 
the  other  called  lyanough,  at  Mattachiest,  and  many  others 
to  assist  them  ;  and  now  again  came  to  prosecute  the 
same  ;  and  since  there  was  so  fair  an  opportunity  offered 
by  the  Captain's  presence,  they  thought  best  to  make  sure 
of  him  and  his  company.' 

After  Wittawamut  had  made  this  speech,  he  received 
much  more  consideration  and  attention  than  Standish  ;  so 
great  was  the  difference,  that  Standish  was  excessively 
indignant,  (although  he  had  not  understood  the  purport  of 
Wittawamut's  speech,  which  was  explained  to  him  after- 
wards.) 

The  savages  then  endeavored  to  persuade  him  to  send 
for  the  remainder  of  his  boat's  crew,  which  he  refused,  and 
engaged  the  Indian  women  to  take  his  corn  down  to  the 
boat. 

An  Indian  of  Paomet  was  present  who  had  formerly  pro- 
fessed great  friendship  for  the  English  :  he  besought  Stan- 
dish with  great  importunity  to  lodge  at  his  hut.  making 
many  professions  and  offering  to  assist  in  carrying  the 
corn  to  the  boat,  a  kind  of  labor  which  he  said  he  had 
never  performed  for  any  one. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  iQg 

The  weather  was  so  excessively  cold  that  Standish 
could  not  sleep  but  kept  before  the  fire.  The  Indian 
urged  him  to  sleep,  but  his  anxiety  kept  him  awake.  It 
was  afterwards  discovered  that  this  Indian  intended  to 
have  killed  him  while  he  slept. 

On  the  next  day  this  Indian  (of  whom  Standish  had  no 
suspicions)  embarked  with  him,  and  urged  him  with  much 
importunity  to  go  to  Paomet,  promising  to  sell  him  his  own 
corn  and  to  procure  other  corn  for  him.  Standish  at 
length  yielded  to  his  solicitations,  and  put  his  boat  about, 
but  was  forced  back  by  a  contrary  wind,  and  returned  to 
Plymouth,  (fortunately  for  him)  for  had  he  reached  Paomet, 
in  all  probability,  he  would  have  been  taken  off. 

After  the  fight  at  Wessagusset,  an  Indian  youth,  (who 
had  always  appeared  to  be  attached  to  the  English,)  not- 
withstanding the  injuries  which  Standish  had  done  his 
countrymen  came  to  him  without  fear  and  confessed  that 
it  was  the  intention  ,of  the  natives  to  have  killed  all 
Weston's  people,  and  they  waited  merely  for  the  fin- 
ishing of  a  couple  of  canoes  which  they  were  building 
for  them  at  that  time. 

Their  Indian  prisoner  after  viewing  the  head  of  Witta- 
wamut  with  much  emotion,  confessed  his  knowledge  of 
the. plot,  and  informed  them  that  the  sachem  Obtakiest  had 
been  drawn  into  it  with  much  reluctance,  having  yielded 
to  the  importunity  of  his  people  against  his  own  inclina- 
tion. He  also  informed  them  that  there  were  five  who 
were  mainly  instrumental  in  devising  the  plot,  amongst 
whom  were  Wittawamut  and  Pecksuot,  the  other  three 
were  powaws  or  priests,  one  of  whom  was  wounded.  He 
denied  any  personal  participation  in  the  conspiracy  and 
affirmed  that  he  was  a  stranger,  and  not  one  of  the  tribe. 
Hobbomock   interceding  for   him   he  was   released  and 


\  1 0  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH   COLONY 

despatched  with  a  message  to  Obtakiest  of  the  following 
tenor; — 'that  it  nevGr  entered  the  hearts  of  the  English 
to  adopt  such  measures  as  they  had  pursued  towards  them 
until  they  were  compelled  thereto  by  their  own  treachery, 
and  that  if  he  persisted  in  his  courses,  they  would  drive 
him  from  his  country,  and  utterly  exterminate  his  people. 
They  also  required  him  to  send  to  Pawtuxet,  (Plymouth) 
three  Englishmen  whom  he  had  taken,  (being  some  of 
Weston's  company,)  that  he  should  do  no  injury  to  the 
paling  or  buildings  at  Wessagusset,  and  that  the  messenger 
should  forthwith  be  sent  back  with  the  English,  and  with 
a  satisfactory  answer.' 

But  another  circumstance  proves  the  existence  of  the 
plot  still  more  conclusively.  News  came  to  Plymouth  that 
Massasoiet  was  sick,  and  would  probably  die,  and  that  a 
Dutch  ship  had  been  stranded  near  his  residence.  As  the 
Indians  when  sick  expect  visits  from  their  friends,  it  was 
thought  right  by  the  governor  to  despatch  Mr  Winslow 
to  visit  Massasoiet  once  more,  and  to  have  a  conference 
with  the  Dutch.  He  was  selected  for  this  service  because 
he  had  once  before  been  to  Sowams,  and  had  some  know- 
ledge of  the  Dutch  language.  Having  provided  himself 
with  some  cordials,  and  attended  by  Hobbomock  for  a 
guide,  and  the  celebrated  John  Hampden  for  a  companion, 
(who  was  then  sojourning  at  Plymouth,  and  who  felt  an 
anxious  desire  to  see  the  country,)  he  set  forth  on  his 
journey.* 

The  first  night  they  lodged  with  their  Indian  friends  at 
Namasket.      The  next  day  they  came  to  a  ferry  in  Corbi- 

*  When  wandering  about  the  woods  of  Pokanoket,  or  along  the  banks  of 
Taunton  river,  or  sleeping  in  Indian  huts,  little  did  Hampden  dream  of  the 
fate  which  awaited  him,  little  did  he  think  that  it  was  reserved  for  him  to 
commence  the  overthrow  of  the  British  monarchy,  and  to  shed  his  blood  in 
the  first  daring  attempt  for  a  free  constitution  in  England. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  m 

tant's  country,*  where  they  found  many  Indians  and  were 
informed  that  Massasoiet  was  dead,  and  was  to  be  buried 
that  day,  and  that  the  Dutch  had  hove  their  ship  off, 
and  were  just  about  to  sail. 

Winslow  was  disconcerted  at  this  news,  and  Hobbomock 
was  anxious  to  return,  but  Winslow  apprehending  that 
Corbitant  would  probably  succeed  Massasoiet,  and  that  he 
dwelt  but  about  three  miles  ofF,f  deemed  it  a  duty  to  en- 
deavor to  propitiate  him,  although  he  was  well  aware  of 
his  hostility  to  the  English.  Yet  he  thought  at  that 
time  he  was  interested  to  keep  on  good  terms.  Hampden 
and  Hobbomock  willingly  consented  to  go  although  Hob- 
bomock had  reason  to  apprehend  injury  from  the  resent- 
ment of  Corbitant. 

On  the  way,  Hobbomock  vented  his  grief  in  speeches, 
exclaiming  often,  '  JVeen  womasu  sagimus,  men  tvomasu 
sagimus.''     My  loving  sachem,  my  loving  sachem. 

'  Many  have  I  known  (said  he,)  but  never  any  like  thee. 
Whilst  I  live  I  shall  never  see  his  like  amongst  the  Indians  j 
he  was  no  liar  ;  he  was  not  bloody  and  cruel,  like  other 
Indians.  In  anger  and  passion  he  was  soon  reclaimed  ; 
easy  to  be  reconciled  towards  such  as  had  offended  him  ; 
ruled  by  reason  in  such  measure  as  he  would  not  scorn  the 
advice  of  mean  men  ;  and  that  he  governed  his  men  better 
with  few  strokes  than  others  did  with  many  ;  truly  loving 
where  he  loved  ;  yea  he  feared  we  had  not  a  faithful  friend 
left  among  the  Indians ;  and  that  he  oftentimes  restrained 
their  malice.' 

He  continued  to  grieve  and  lament  until  they  reached 
Corbitant's  house  ;  Corbitant  was  not  there  but  had  gone 

*  Now  Slade's  ferry  in  Somerset. 

t  At  Mettapuyst,  or  Mettapoiset,  a  neck  of  land  in  Swansey,  now  called 
Gardner's  neck. 


112  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

to  visit  Massasoiet.  Corbitant's  wife  entertained  them  with 
much  kindness,  and  informed  them  that  there  was  no  cer- 
tain news  of  Massasoiet's  death,  although  it  was  supposed 
he  was  dead.  Winslow  hired  an  Indian  to  go  to  Po- 
kanoket  and  to  ascertain  whether  Massasoiet  was  dead  or 
not,  and  to  inform  Corbitant  that  he  was  at  his  house. 

The  messenger  soon  returned,  bringing  news  that  Mas- 
sasoiet was  not  dead,  but  there  were  no  hopes  of  his 
recovery. 

When  Winslow  and  his  companions  reached  the  resi- 
dence of  Massasoiet  they  ascertained  that  the  Dutch  had 
sailed,  and  they  found  Massasoiet's  hut  surrounded  with 
people,  so  that  they  had  some  difficulty  to  reach  him. 
The  powaws  were  in  the  midst  of  their  incantations,  and 
six  or  eight  women  were  chafing  him. 

Massasoiet  was  apparently  at  his  last  extremity,  his  sight 
had  failed,  but  when  he  learned  that  Winslow  was  present 
he  desired  him  to  come  to  him,  exclaiming,  '  Matta  neen 
wonckanet  namen,  Winsnow  ! '  Oh  Winslow  I  shall  never 
see  you  again  ! 

Winslow  then  desired  Hobbomock  to  inform  him  that 
the  governor  was  grieved  at  his  sickness,  and  being  unable 
to  come  himself,  had  despatched  him  with  some  things 
which  would  be  serviceable,  and  taking  some  conserve  on 
the  point  of  a  knife,  he  gave  it  to  him  : —  it  dissolved  in  his 
mouth,  and  he  swallowed  it,  at  which  his  attendants  were 
greatly  rejoiced  inasmuch  as  he  had  not  swallowed  for  two 
days.  Winslow  then  washed  his  mouth  which  was  exces- 
sively furred,  and  dissolving  some  of  the  conserve  in  wa- 
ter, the  sachem  drank  it.  A  great  alteration  was  soon 
wrought,  and  his  sight  returned.  Winslow  then  prepared 
some  broth  from  corn-meal,  and  mixing  it  with  strawberry 
leaves,  and  sassafras  root,  gave  it  to  him  to  drink ;  every- 
thing which  was  administered  produced  a  favorable  effect, 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  I13 

and  these  simple  remedies  left  him  free  from  the  disorder 
which  had  brought  him  so  near  to  death.  He  then  re- 
quested Winslow  to  administer  the  like  remedies  to  all  the 
sick.  Many  had  come  to  visit  him  who  lived  an  hundred 
miles  from  his  residence. 

The  gratitude  of  this  simple  hearted  and  honest  sachem 
was  unbounded.  '  Now  (said  he)  I  see  the  English  are 
my  friends  and  love  me  ;  and  whilst  I  live,  I  will  never 
forget  this  kindness.'  During  their  stay  they  were  treated 
with  the  utmost  kindness  and  attention.  When  they  were 
about  to  depart,  the  sachem  privately  informed  Hobbomock 
of  the  existence  of  the  plot  against  Weston's  colony  ;  that 
the  people  of  Nauset,  Paomet,  Succonet,"  Mattachiest,  Ma- 
nomet,  Agawam,  and  the  Isle  of  Capawack,  were  in  con- 
federacy with  the  Massachusetts  ;  that  during  his  sickness 
he  had  been  earnestly  solicited  to  join  them  but  he  had 
refused,  neither  would  he  suffer  any  of  his  own  tribe  to 
engage  in  this  conspiracy  ;  that  there  was  no  way  to 
avert  the  threatened  danger  unless  the  Massachusetts  were 
attacked  ;  that  if  the  English  regarded  their  own  safety, 
they  had  better  strike  the  first  blow,  for  after  the  settlers 
at  Wessagusset  had  been  killed,  it  would  be  difficult  for 
the  Plymouth  people  to  sustain  themselves  against  so  many 
enemies. 

He  earnestly  counselled  Hobbomock  that  the  principals 
should  be  taken  off  without  delay,  and  then  the  afi'air 
would  be  terminated.  And  he  charged  him  to  acquaint 
Winslow  of  the  designs  of  these  hostile  Indians  immedi- 
ately, so  that  the  governor  might  have  early  information 
thereof,  which  was  done. 

Winslow  and  Hampden  departed  from  Sowams  followed 
by  the  blessings  of  Massasoiet  and  all  his  people.     Corbi- 

*  Falmouth. 
15 


114  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLON  if. 

tant  urged  them  to  remain  with  him  one  night  at  Metta- 
poiset,  to  which  they  consented,  and  he  treated  them  with 
the  most  generous  hospitality.  They  found  him  a  shrewd 
politician,  and  a  merry  companion,  delighting  both  to  give 
jokes,  and  to  take  them,  and  extremely  inquisitive  as  to  the 
customs  of  the  English.  Among  other  things  he  inquired 
of  Winslow  wiiether  if  he  should  be  sick  the  governor  of 
Plymouth  would  send  him  maskiet,  (physic)  and  whether 
he  would  come  to  see  him ;  upon  Winslow's  answer  in  the 
affirmative,  he  expressed  great  joy,  and  gave  him  many 
thanks. 

He  inquired  of  Winslow  how  he  dared  to  come  with 
only  one  Englishman  so  far  into  the  country  ;  Winslow  told 
him  that  as  he  was  conscious  of  his  own  uprightness,  he 
had  no  fear.  He  complained  of  the  strict  guard  which 
was  kept  at  Plymouth  when  the  Indians  visited  there,  and 
would  not  believe  Winslow  when  he  endeavored  to  per- 
suade him  that  it  was  for  his  honor.  Corbitant  inquired 
into  the  reason  of  asking  grace,  and  returning  thanks, 
before  and  after  eating  ;  Winslow  endeavored  to  impress 
his  mind  with  the  importance  of  gratitude  to  God  for  his 
goodness,  and  instructed  him  in  the  commandments. — 
Corbitant  said  the  Indians  believed  almost  the  same  things, 
and  that  the  being  which  the  English  called  God,  the 
Indians  called  Kichtan. 

In  the  morning  the  Englishmen  departed  highly  pleased 
with  Corbitant's  treatment.  The  next  night  they  lodged 
at  Namasket,  and  then  returned  to  Plymouth. 

Here  they  found  the  Paomet  Indian  who  had  come  with 
Standish  still  urging  him  to  go  to  his  country ;  but  suspi- 
cion being  now  awakened,  no  credit  was  given  to  his  pro- 
fessions, but  he  was  sent  away  unharmed. 

A  reply  was  received  from  Obtakiest  through  a  woman. 
He  professed  himself  to  be  sorry  that  he  could  not  restore 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  115 

» 

the  Englishmen  according  to  the  demand  of  the  gov- 
ernor, but  they  were  killed  previous  to  the  reception  of  his 
message.  That  he  was  desirous  of  making  peace  with  the 
English,  but  that  neither  he  nor  any  of  his  men  durst  come 
near  them  to  treat,  but  were  daily  wandering  about  from 
place  to  place,  having  from  fear  abandoned  their  dwel- 
lings. 

Athough  the  English  never  molested  the  other  tribes 
which  were  believed  to  have  conspired  with  the  Massachu- 
setts, yet  intimidated  by  the  prompt  vengeance  which  they 
exercised  on  them,  they  also  abandoned  their  dwellings, 
and  concealed  themselves  in  the  swamps  and  other  hiding 
places,  and  by  living  in  this  miserable  manner  contracted 
disorders  which  soon  carried  them  off  in  great  numbers. 
They  planted  but  little  corn,  and  famine  was  added  to  their 
other  distresses. 

Canaucum  the  sachem  of  Manomet,  Aspinet  the  sachem 
of  Nauset,  and  lyanough  the  sachem  of  Mattachiest,  soon 
died.  lyanough  said  '  that  the  God  of  the  English  was 
offended  with  them  and  would  destroy  them  in  his  anger.' 

To  propitiate  the  governor  and  to  obtain  peace,  a  boat 
was  despatched  from  one  of  these  places  with  presents, 
but  it  was  cast  away,  and  three  of  the  crew  were  drowned. 

The  spirit  of  the  neighboring  Indians  was  completely 
subdued,  and  no  more  attempts  were  made  by  them  against 
the  Plymouth  colonists  for  more  than  fifty  years. 

The  severity  of  their  misfortunes  was  unquestionably 
caused  originally  by  the  vile  and  foolish  conduct  of  Wes- 
ton's company,  who  by  provoking  the  Massachusetts  to  a 
just  resentment,  were  the  occasion  of  those  wide  spreading 
jealousies,  which  finally  were  nearly  productive  of  a  gen- 
eral combination  amongst  the  tribes. 

At  the  time  of  the  expedition  of  Standish  to  Massachu- 
setts, the  enmity  of  the  tribes  to  the  English  had  not  reached 


116  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY 

the  point  of  open  hostility.  Many  were  willing  and  ready 
to  undertake  a  general  enterprise  for  the  extermination  of 
the  whites.  Some  doubted.  Success  or  misfortune  would 
probably  have  decided  others.  The  English,  however, 
could  not  have  counted  on  the  assistance  of  more  than  three 
or  four  tribes. —  Had  they  not  by  this  prompt  proceeding 
destroyed  the  seeds  of  this  combination  in  its  germ,  they 
would  in  all  probability  have  been  destroyed  ;  the  colo- 
nization of  New  England  would  have  been  delayed  for 
many  years,  and  the  next  attempt  would  probably  have 
been  made  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson,  but  '  the  fulness  of 
time  had  come,'  and  the  design  of  providence  was  fulfilled. 

When  the  venerable  and  pious  Robinson  heard  of  these 
transactions,  it  grieved  him  to  the  heart,  and  in  his  letter 
to  the  governor  he  says,  '  Oh  that  you  had  converted  some 
before  you  had  killed  any.' 

Shortly  after  the  departure  of  Weston's  company  to  the 
eastward,  he  came  over  himself  in  one  of  the  fishing  vessels 
in  the  disguise  of  a  blacksmith  }  hearing  of  the  ruin  of  his 
plantation,  he  was  anxious  to  ascertain  the  actual  situation 
of  his  property,  but  being  wrecked,  he  barely  escaped 
with  his  life,  and  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  Indians,  was 
stripped  of  everything,  even  of  his  clothes  and  shirt.  At 
length  he  reached  Piscataqua,*  where  he  borrowed  some 
clothes,  and  went  to  Plymouth.  Out  of  the  small  stock 
of  the  settlers,  he  borrowed  one  hundred  and  seventy 
pounds  of  beaver,  he  then  reached  his  small  vessel  and 
began  to  build  up  his  broken  fortunes  anew  by  traffic. 
He  revisited  Plymouth  while  Captain  Robert  Gorges,  the 
son  of  Sir  Ferdinand©  Gorges,  was  there,  with  whom  he  had 
a  violent  quarrel. —  Gorges  having  called  him  to  account 

"  Now  Portsmouth. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  j  17 

for  some  abuses.  With  much  difficulty  Gov.  Bradford 
reconciled  them.  Weston  after  going  to  the  eastward 
again,  revisited  Plymouth,  and  soon  sailed  for  Virginia. 
He  never  paid  his  debt  to  the  Plymouth  people,  but  ma- 
ligned, and  misrepresented  them  everywhere,  and  did  them 
all  the  injury  in  his  power. 


(        118       ) 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

First  Attempts  to  Settle  New  Hampshire. — John  Peirce  obtains  an  enlarged' 
patent. — His  Desisjns. — Sells  his  Patent  to  the  Plymouth  Company. — Arrival 
of  Admiral  West. — Division  of  Labor  and  the  Abolition  of  a  Community  of 
Goods. — Colony  threatened  with  famine. — Distress. — Drought. — Arrival  of 
the  Anne  and  Little  James  with  passengers  and  supphes. — Tlie  Anne  sails 
for  England. — Edward  Winslow  goes  out  as  Agent. — Arrival  of  Capt.  Robert 
Gorges,  and  the  Rev.  Mr  Morrell  at  Wessagusset. — Fire  at  Plymouth. — 
Governor  Gorges  returns  to  England,  and  the  second  attempt  to  settle  Massa- 
chusetts fails. — Renewed  by  emigrants  from  Weymouth  in  England,  and  suc- 
ceeds.— Wessagusset  receives  the  name  of  Weymouth.— Settlement  at 
Cape  Anne. — Governor  Bradford  reelected  against  his  inclination. — Return 
of  Winslow. — First  importation  of  Cattle. — John  Lyford  arrives. — Intrigues 
in  England  to  prevent  the  removal  of  the  remainder  of  Robinson's  Church 
from  Leyden. — An  acre  of  land  assigned  to  each  settler  in  fee. — Intrigues  of 
Lyford  and  Oldham  discovered  and  punished. — Turbulence  of  Oldham. — Ly- 
ford and  Oldham  banished. — Roger  Conant  goes  with  them. — A  part  of  the 
Company  in  England  resent  the  conduct  of  the  Colonists  which  is  satisfac- 
torily explained  by  Edward  Winslow. 

Captain  John  Mason,  who  had  been  governor  of  New- 
foundland, Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  and  several  other  gen- 
tlemen in  the  West  of  England,  obtained  patents  from 
the  New  England  Council,  which  embraced  several  parts 
of  North  America.  In  the  spring  of  1623,  they  sent  out 
David  Thompson  a  Scotchman,  Edward  Hilton,  and 
William  Hilton,  for  the  purpose  of  commencing  a  settle- 
ment. Thompson  built  a  house  on  the  west  side  of  Pis- 
cataqua  river,  at  a  place  called  Piscataquack,*  which  he 

*  Now  Portsmouth. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  219 

c-alled  Mason  Hall.  The  Hiltons  went  up  the  river  to 
Cocheco.*  Some  attempts  were  made  this  year  to  es- 
tablish a  settlement  at  Munhiggon.f 

John  Peirce,  in  whose  name  the  first  patent  of  Plymouth 
was  taken,  in  trust,  for  the  Company,  finding  that  the 
settlement  at  New  Plymouth  was  like  to  become  per- 
manent, obtained  another  patent  of  greater  extent,  which 
he  intended  to  have  reserved  for  himself,  and  to  have  com- 
pelled the  settlers  to  hold  of  him  as  tenants,  ^  and  to  sue  in 
his  courts  as  chief  lord.'  On  the  16th  of  October,  1622, 
he  despatched  the  ship  Paragon  from  London  for  New 
Plymouth  with  sixtyseven  passengers,  but  the  weather 
was  so  tempestuous  and  the  ship  so  leaky,  that  in  fourteen 
days  she  was  compelled  to  return,  after  which  she  was  de- 
layed some  time  for  repairs.  She  sailed  again,  (Dec.  22) 
with  one  hundred  and  nine  passengers,  amongst  Avhom 
was  Peirce  himself;  but  the  weather  continuing  unfavor- 
able, and  the  ship  being  in  great  danger,  there  was  a 
general  determination  to  give  over  the  voyage,  and  the 
ship  arrived  at  Portsmouth,  (England)  about  the  middle 
of  February,  (1623.) 

Discouraged  by  his  losses  and  disappointments,  Peirce 
was  induced,  for  the  sum  of  <£500  to  relinquish  his  patent, 
which  had  cost  him  but  fifty.  The  goods,  and  the  expense 
of  the  passengers  amounted  to  £640.  Another  ship, 
called  the  Anne,  was  hired  to  transport  the  passengers, 
in  which  sixty  embarked. 

In  the  month  of  June,  1623,  a  ship  commanded  by 
Capt.  Francis  West,  who  had  been  appointed  Admiral  of 
J\'ew  England,  arrived  at  Plymouth.  Capt.  West  had  au- 
thority under  his  commission  to  prevent  the  officers  and 
crews  of  all  ships  from  trading  or  fishing  without  license, 

*  Now  Dover.  t  Near  the  Penobscot  river. 


120  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

the  council  for  New  England  having  determined  that  the 
privilege  should  be  paid  for,  but  he  found  the  fishermen 
intractable  to  persuasion  and  fearless  of  force,  and  he 
sailed  for  Virginia.  The  owners  of  the  fishing  vessels 
complained  to  the  Parliament,  and  obtained  an  order  that 
the  fishery  should  be  made  free. 

Hitherto  the  colonists  had  held  their  property  in  com- 
mon, and  had  cultivated  the  land  without  regard  to  any 
particular  ownership,  and  the  product  was  deposited  in 
the  common  storehouse  ;  but  the  overseers  having  nothing 
to  bestow  as  a  remuneration  for  labor,  and  some  declining 
to  work,  as  they  were  sure  of  support,  the  system  was 
changed,  and  at  a  general  meeting  of  the  settlers  in  April, 
1623,  it  was  ordered  that  the  land  should  be  cultivated  in 
severalty,  and  that  the  cultivator  should  have  the  product ; 
all  the  young  single  men  were  assigned  to  some  fami- 
ly ;  each  family  were  to  plant  their  own  corn  and  de- 
pend on  themselves  for  food  5  at  the  harvest  a  certain  por- 
tion was  to  be  set  apart  for  those  who  were  engaged  in 
public  business,  and  for  the  fishermen.  Particular  parcels 
of  land  were  assigned  to  each  family  in  proportion  to  its 
numbers,  but  for  cultivation  only  ;  the  land  itself  was  not 
considered  as  private  property,  and  could  not  be  inherit- 
ed. Stimulated  by  the  prospect  of  enjoying  the  fruits  of 
their  own  labors,  the  spirit  of  industry  was  excited  amongst 
the  settlers  ;  the  women  and  children  wrought  in  the 
fields,  and  much  more  corn  was  planted  than  had  been 
anticipated. 

A  people  amongst  whom  a  community  of  property  ex- 
ists, seldom  become  wealthy.  The  people  of  Plymouth 
soon  realized  the  benefit  of  a  system  which  put  each  indi- 
vidual on  his  own  resources,  and  which,  by  increasing  the 
individual,  increased  the  general  wealth.  The  character 
of  man  is  such,   that  although  under  the    excitement  of 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  121 

enthusiasm,  he  may  for  a  time  be  induced  to  labor  for  the 
public,  yet  the  labor  which  is  followed  by  no  personal 
benefit  soon  becomes  irksome,  and  his  exertions  relax,  but 
self-love  remains  after  enthusiasm  has  been  chilled  into 
indifference,  or  frozen  into  apathy,* 

When  the  settlers  had  finished  their  planting,  the 
store  of  provision  was  completely  exhausted,  and  they 
were  obliged  to  rely  on  the  chance  of  a  day  for  their  daily 
food,  but  they  sustained  themselves  under  this  new  afflic- 
tion with  astonishing  fortitude.  They  resorted  to  fishing, 
and  were  generally  successful.  When  this  resource  failed 
they  explored  the  woods  for  groundnuts,  and  the  sea-shore 
for  clams.  Brewster,  the  ruling  elder,  lived  for  many 
months  together  without  bread,  and  frequently  on  fish 
alone.  With  nothing  but  oysters  and  clams  before  him, 
he,  with  his  family,  would  give  thanks  that  they  could 
'  suck  of  the  abundance  of  the  seas  and  of  the  treasures 
hid  in  the  sands.'  Whenever  a  deer  was  taken,  it  was 
divided  amongst  the  whole  company.  It  is  said  that  they 
were  once  reduced  to  a  pint  of  corn,  which  being  equally 
divided,  gave  to  each  a  proportion  of  five  kernels,  which 
was  parched  and  eaten .f     To  complete  their  distresses  a 

*  Two  remarkable  exceptions  to  these  remarks  exist  in  the  United  States, 
the  Shakers  and  the  Harmonists,  who  have  established  a  community  of  goods. 
The  shakers  possess  peculiarities  so  extraordinary,  that  ordinary  maxims  cannot 
with  propriety  be  applied  to  them,  and  whenever  the  Harmonists  shall  cease 
to  consider  their  pastor  as  a  prophet,  they  will  adopt  the  common  usages  of 
society. 

t  At  the  centennial  feast  at  Plymouth,  Dec.  22,  1820,  much  of  the  beauty, 
fashion,  wealth,  and  talent  of  Massachusetts,  had  congregated  at  Plymouth. 
Orators  spoke,  and  poets  sang,  the  praises  of  their  pilgrim  fathers.  The  richest 
viands  gratified  the  most  fastidious  epicure  to  satiety.  Beside  each  plate  five 
grains  of  parched  corn  were  placed,  a  simple  but  interesting  and  affecting  me- 
morial of  the  distresses  of  those  heroic  and  pious  men  who  won  this  fair  land  of 
plenty,  and  freedom,  and  happiness,  and  yet  at  times  were  literally  in  want  of 
a  morsel  of  bread. 
16 


122  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

drought  set  in,  of  unexampled  duration,  having  continued 
from  the  third  week  in  May  until  the  middle  of  July.  The 
face  of  the  earth  was  as  ashes,  and  the  corn  was  withering. 
Hobbomock  was  much  afflicted  at  the  situation  of  the 
English,  fearing  that  the  drought  would  bring  starvation 
on  the  colony.  '  As  for  the  Indians,  (said  he)  they  can 
shift  better  than  the  English,  for  they  can  get  fish  to  help 
themselves.'  According  to  their  custom,  the  colonists 
ordered  a  day  of  humiliation,  fasting,  and  prayer,  in  whicii 
the  aid  of  the  Lord  to  send  them  rain  was  most  sincerely 
and  fervently  invoked.  The  morning  of  the  day  was  clear 
and  unclouded,  and  the  heat  was  intense,  but  before  night 
the  clouds  began  to  gather,  and  the  rain  descended  in  co- 
pious and  gentle  showers,  refreshing  the  whole  face  of 
the  earth. 

The  Indians  who  knew  of  their  design  to  invoke  the 
divine  favor,  were  in  utter  astonishment,  and  Hobbomock 
said,  '  now  I  see  the  Englishman's  God  is  a  good  God,  for 
he  hath  heard  you  and  sent  you  rain,  and  that  without 
storms,  and  tempests,  and  thunder,  which  usually  we  have 
with  our  rains,  which  breaks  down  our  corn,  but  yours 
stands  whole  and  good  still  ;  —  surely  your  God  is  a  good 
God.' 

Many  remarkable,  and  apparently  providential  interpo- 
sitions, oftentimes,  seeming  direct  and  favorable  answers 
to  the  prayers  of  the  supplicants,  impressed  the  Indians 
with  the  belief  that  the  English  were  under  the  immediate 
protection  of  a  Being,  who  always  regarded  the  supplica- 
tions of  his  worshippers,  and  their  reverence  was  increased 
in  proportion  as  they  saw  his  hand  operating  directly  in 
the  affairs  of  his  people. 

Standish,  who  had  been  despatched  by  the  governor  to 
obtain  provisions,  returned  with  some,  and  with  him  came 
David  Thompson,  the  settler  of  Piscataquack. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  ]23 

Late  ill  July  and  early  in  August,  (1623,)  two  ships  ar- 
rived with  supplies,  bringing  sixty  passengers,  amongst 
whom  were  Mr  Timothy  Hatherly,  Mr  George  Morton, 
and  Mr  John  Jenny,  and  the  wives  and  children  of  some 
w^ho  had  already  arrived.  Some  of  the  new  comers  proved 
so  bad  that  they  were  sent  back.  The  ships  were  called 
the  Anne  and  the  Little  James. 

Cushman  wrote  to  them  —  'Some  few  of  your  old 
friends  are  come ;  they  come  dropping  to  you  ;  and  by 
degrees  I  hope  ere  long  you  shall  enjoy  them  all.' 

Others  wrote, —  '  Let  it  not  be  grievous  to  you,  that  you 
have  been  the  instruments  to  break  the  ice  for  others  who 
come  after  you  with  less  difficulty  ;  the  honor  shall  be 
yours  to  the  world's  end  ;  we  bear  you  always  in  our 
breasts,  and  our  hearty  affection  is  towards  you  all,  as  are 
the  hearts  of  hundreds  more  which  never  saw  your  faces, 
who  doubtless  pray  for  your  safety  as  their  own.' 

When  the  passengers  saw  the  lowly  condition  of  the 
colonists,  they  were  sorely  dismayed,  excepting  their  old 
friends  wdio  appeared  to  be  rejoiced  to  be  with  them,  and 
to  find  that  their  condition  was  not  worse.  The  best  fare 
which  could  be  provided  were  lobsters  and  cold  water. 
Of  bread  the  settlers  were  destitute,  but  devotion  filled 
their  hearts  with  gratitude  to  the  giver  of  all  good,  and  a 
day  was  set  apart  for  thanksgiving  and  praise. 

On  the  tenth  of  September,  (1623,)  the  Anne  sailed  for 
England,  laden  with  clapboards  and  furs,  and  Mr  Wins- 
low  again  went  out  to  England  as  the  agent  of, the  colony. 
The  Little  James  had  been  built  for  the  company.  She 
was  fitted  for  trade  and  discovery  to  the  south  of  Cape 
Cod. 

The  harvest  came  in  plentifully,  and  their  apprehen- 
sions of  famine  were  removed. 


124  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY, 

In  the  course  of  this  month,  Captain  Robert  Gorges,  the 
son  of  Sir  Ferdinando,  accompanied  by  Mr  Morell  an 
Episcopalian  minister,  and  many  other  passengers  and 
their  families,  arrived  in  the  bay  to  commence  another 
settlement.  He  selected  the  spot  at  Wessagusset  which 
had  been  abandoned  by  Weston's  company. 

He  acted  under  a  commission  from  the  council  of  New 
England,  by  which  he  was  constitued  lieutenant  general 
or  general  governor  of  the  country.  Admiral  West,  Chris- 
topher Levit,  Esq.  and  the  governor  of  Plymouth  for  the 
time  being,  were  constituted  his  council,  and  authority 
was  given  him  to  appoint  other  counsellors.  Full  power 
was  granted  to  him  and  his  assistants,  or  any  three  of 
them,  (whereof  he  was  to  be  one,)  in  all  cases,  capital, 
criminal  or  civil.  Having  notified  the  governor  of  Ply- 
mouth of  his  arrival,  before  he  could  visit  him,  he  sailed 
for  the  eastward,  but  was  compelled  by  stress  of  weather 
to  put  into  Plymouth,  where  he  was  treated  with  great 
distinction  and  remained  there  fourteen  days.  It  was 
during  this  stay  that  he  met  with  Weston,  as  has  been 
before  related.  Governor  Gorges,  (who  was  much  pleased 
with  his  reception  at  Plymouth,)  set  out  by  land  for  Mas- 
sachusetts, leaving  his  ship  at  Plymouth.  During  her 
stay  some  of  the  seamen,  by  making  a  great  fire  in  a  house 
on  shore  caught  the  chimney,  and  the  fire  being  commu- 
nicated consumed  that  and  three  or  four  other  houses, 
with  all  their  goods  and  provisions.  This  accident  indu- 
ced some  of  those  who  had  been  burnt  out  to  take  passage 
in  the  ship  for  Virginia.  Some  others  also  embraced  this 
opportunity  to  return,  among  whom  was  Mr  Hatherly, 
who  disliked  the  country. 

The  Little  James  the  pinnace  which  had  been  sent  out 
to  trade  with  the  Narragansetts  returned  with  some  corn 
and  beaver,  and  made  but  a  poor  voyage  as  the  Dutch 
supplied  that  country  with  better  goods. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  125 

In  the  early  part  of  the  year  1624,  Capt.  Gorges  return- 
ed to  England,  whither  some  of  his  people  also  went : 
others  went  to  Virginia ;  but  few  remained,  and  they  were 
supplied  with  provisions  by  the  people  of  Plymouth. 

Gorges  was  a  man  of  rank  accustomed  to  the  ease 
and  luxury  of  high  life,  and  could  little  brook  the  toils, 
and  hardships,  and  privations  incident  to  an  attempt  to 
people  a  wilderness. 

Mr  Morell  remained  about  a  year  and  then  returned. 
He  was  created  a  superintendent  over  all  the  churches, 
but  very  wisely  never  attempted  to  execute  his  commis- 
sion, and  he  did  not  think  it  worth  his  while  even  to  ex- 
hibit it.  Thus  terminated  the  second  attempt  to  establish 
a  plantation  in  Massachusetts.  A  very  few,  however,  re- 
mained, and  they  were  joined  in  the  course  of  the  year 
by  some  families  from  Weymouth  in  England,  from  whom 
this  plantation  afterwards  received  the  name  of  Wey- 
mouth. 

About  this  time  at  the  instigation  of  Mr  White,  a  cele- 
brated puritan  minister  at  Dorchester  in  England,  a  settle- 
ment was  commenced  at  Cape  Anne  in  Massachusetts, 
and  John  Tilly  was  employed  as  the  overseer. 

When  the  day  of  the  annual  election  arrived,  (1624) 
Governor  Bradford  was  very  anxious  to  be  relieved  from 
the  toils  of  office,  representing  to  the  people  that  whether 
the  office  were  honorable  or  burthensome,  others  ought  to 
share  it,  but  notwithstanding  his  remonstrances  they 
elected  him,  but  to  lessen  his  labor  they  increased  the 
number  of  assistants  from  one  to  five,  giving  the  governor 
however,  a  double  voice  in  the  court  of  assistants.  Hith- 
erto he  had  been  annually  chosen  from  the  time  of  his 
first  election,  and  Allerton  had  also  been  chosen  his 
assistant  or  deputy  governor,  to  which  office  he  was  re- 
chosen.  Edward  Winslow  and  three  others  were  chosen 
assistants. 


126  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

The  pinnace  was  sent  to  Damarin's  cove  to  fish,  biit 
being  driven  on  the  rocks,  she  sunk  with  her  lading,  and 
the  master  and  one  man  were  drowned,  but  by  the  assist- 
ance of  the  fishermen  who  resorted  tiiere,  she  was  after- 
guards raised  and  repaired. 

In  the  month  of  March,  (1624)  Winslow  returned  in  the 
ship  Charity,  bringing  a  supply  of  clothing,  and  a  bull 
and  three  heifers  being  the  first  neat  cattle  which  were 
imported  into  New  England. 

The  colonists  learned  from  him  that  a  strong  party  had 
been  raised  up  against  them  amongst  the  adventurers,  who 
were  extremely  anxious  to  prevent  Robinson  and  the  re- 
mainder of  his  church  from  emigrating  to  America.  He 
brought  letters  from  Robinson  and  Cushman.  A  carpen- 
ter came  over  for  the  purpose  of  building  two  ketches,  a 
lighter,  and  six  or  seven  shallops,  and  a  person  also  to  make 
salt.  The  carpenter  built  his  craft  faithfully  and  speedily, 
but  soon  died.  The  other  was  ignorant  and  did  not  bring 
his  undertaking  to  any  successful  issue. 

John  Lyford  a  preacher  who  afterwards  occasioned  much 
trouble  to  the  colony  also  came  with  Winslow,  not  how- 
ever by  his  solicitation,  for  his  reputation  was  low,  but  he 
was  forced  upon  him  by  the  company  in  England. 

A  patent  for  Cape  Anne  was  takeVi  out  by  the  adven- 
turers. 

The  people  becoming  dissatisfied  about  the  uncertain 
tenure  of  their  lands,  prevailed  upon  the  governor  to 
assign  to  each  one  an  acre  in  fee.  The  land  was  lo- 
cated as  near  the  town  as  practicable,  the  object  of  the 
governor  being  to  prevent  the  people  from  scattering,  and 
to  keep  the  town  as  compa^ct  as  possible,  both  for  safety 
and  defence,  and  it  was  then  understood  that  no  more  land 
should  be  assigned  in  severalty  for  seven  years. 

The  Charity  was  discharged  and  sent  to  Cape  Anne  to 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  137 

fish,  but  through  the  drunkenness  of  the  master,  she  met 
with  no  success,* 

At  first,  the  deportment  of  Lyford  to  the  colonists  was 
humble  even  to  servility  ;  making  many  professions  of  love 
and  blessing  God  that  he  had  been  permitted  to  see  their 
faces. 

The  governor  on  important  occasions  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  consult  with  Brewster  the  ruling  elder,  he  now 
also  admitted  Lyford  to  his  consultations,  and  he  received 
from  the  public  stock  a  greater  allowance  than  any  one 
else. 

In  a  short  time  he  made  a  confession  of  faith  lamenting 
his  errors  with  great  grief  and  humility,  and  desired  to  be 
admitted  to  the  fellowship  of  the  church,  and  he  was  re- 
ceived without  hesitation. 

He  formed  a  .close  intimacy  with  John  Oldham,  a  violent 
and  turbulent  man  who  was  supposed  to  be  in  the  interest 
of  that  part  of  the  adventurers  who  were  inimical  to  the 
colony,  and  in  fact  no  better  than  a  spy  of  theirs. 

They  succeeded  in  exciting  the  more  vicious  and  pro- 
fane part  of  the  populace  against  the  church,  and  although 
they  endeavored  to  keep  their  designs  secret  until  they 
were  matured,  yet  they  were  soon  suspected,  and  closely 
observed.  By  the  aid  of  the  enemies  of  the  colony  in  the 
company  of  adventurers  they  expected  on  some  day  to 
overthrow  the  government  and  the  church,  and  to  take  the 
lead  in  aftairs  themselves. 

When  the  ship  in  which  Winslow  returned  was  about  to 
depart  for  England,  it  was  observed  that  Lyford  had  been 
much   engaged  in  writing,  and   he  was  so  indiscreet  as  to 

*  On  the  seventeenth  of  June  Governor  Bradford's  son  William,  afterwards 
deputy  governor  of  the  colony,  was  born,  and  in  the  course  of  that  month, 
George  Morton,  i  man  of  eminent  piety  and  worth,  died, 


128  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

promulgate  some  things  which  were  in  his  correspondence 
to  some  of  his  favorites,  and  they  being  still  more  indis- 
creet, made  no  secret  of  his  communication  to  them,  but 
boasted  openly  of  their  expectations  of  a  change  in  affairs 
at  Plymouth.  The  suspicion  of  the  governor  was  excited. 
Fearful  of  the  effect  which  Lyford's  representations  might 
produce  in  England,  he  followed  the  ship  after  she  had 
sailed  in  a  boat,  and  representing  the  affair  truly  to  Peirce 
the  captain,  who  was  attached  to  the  colonists,  and  who 
was  aware  of  the  machinations  which  where  engendering 
against  them,  he  permitted  him  to  open  the  letters  of 
Lyford  and  Oldham. —  They  were  filled  with  slanders 
and  falsehoods.  Had  these  accusations  been  heeded  in 
England,  many  evil  consequences  might  have  followed, 
involving  even  the  existence  of  the  colony. 

Most  of  the  letters  were  copied  and  resealed,  but  the 
most  important  were  retained,  and  copies  supplied. 

Amongst  other  letters,  one  was  found  directed  to  John 
Pemberton  a  minister,  and  a  violent  enemy  to  the  colo- 
ny ;  in  this  letter,  copies  of  a  letter  written  by  a  gen- 
tleman in  England  to  Mr  Brewster,  and  also  of  another 
letter  which  Winslow  had  written  to  Mr  Robinson,  were 
enclosed.  These  letters  had  been  lying  in  the  cabin 
of  the  ship  in  which  Lyford  embarked  for  America,  and 
while  she  was  lying  at  Gravesend,  he  opened  and  copied 
them. 

Opening  confidential  letters  was  an  act  which  hardly 
comported  with  the  high  and  honorable  character  which 
Bradford  always  sustained,  but  he  knew  his  adversary,  and 
his  suspicions  were  justified  by  his  discoveries.  He 
sought  only  the  good  of  the  colony,  with  whose  safety  he 
was  especially  entrusted,  and  he  furnished  himself  with 
the  means  of  destroying  a  turbulent  faction  before  they 
could  endanger  its  peace. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  j^O 

The  conspirators  were  somewhat  disconcerted  when 
they  discovered  that  Bradford  had  visited  the  ship,  but  as 
nothing  was  said  which  could  indicate  that  he  was  in  any- 
wise acquainted  with  the  contents  of  their  letters,  they 
soon  resumed  their  machinations. 

Bradford  in  the  meantime  was  silent  but  watched  their 
conduct  closely,  with  a  view  to  ascertain  their  designs 
more  fully,  and  to  discover  their  adherents. 

Oldham  soon  began  to  be  refractory,  and  refused  to  do 
military  duty,  abused  his  captain  in  the  most  opprobrious 
terms,  and  attacked  him  with  a  knife.  For  this  ofience  he 
was  imprisoned,  but  acknowledging  his  error,  he  was 
soon  released.  Soon  after  this,  the  plot  came  to  its 
crisis. 

Without  consulting  the  governor,  the  elders,  or  the 
church,  Lyford  thinking  his  adherents  sufficiently  numerous 
to  bid  defiance  to  the  authority  of  the  colony,  withdrew 
himself  from  the  church  and  worshipped  apart,  and  at- 
tempted to  administer  the  sacrament  by  virtue  of  his 
episcopal  ordination. 

The  governor  then  called  a  court  and  summoned  the 
whole  company,  and  there  preferred  his  charges  against 
Lyford  and  Oldham.  They  denied  his  accusations  with 
great  boldness  and  defied  him  to  the  proof. 

The  governor  spoke  at  some  length  as  to  the  principal 
objects  and  views  of  the  colonists, —  their  desire  to  enjoy 
the  ordinances  of  God  unmolested,  the  toils  and  dangers 
which  they  had  encountered  in  effecting  those  objects, 
(and  in  which  these  men  had  not  participated.)  and  he 
reproached  Lyford  with  his  perfidy  in  plotting  against  men 
who  had  received  him  with  kindness,  and  had  supported 
him  at  much  expense.  Persisting  in  their  denial,  he  pro-^ 
duced  their  letters,  and  they  were  utterly  confounded. 

Oldham  however,  rallying  his  courage,  called  on  his 
17 


1 30  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

adherents  to  resist,  but  they  were  all  silent,  being  wholly 
incapacitated  to  act,  through  fear. 

The  Governor  then  enlarged  upon  the  additional  proofs 
which  the  letters  supplied  of  the  hypocrisy  and  wicked" 
ness  of  Lyford,  His  early  treachery  in  opening  the  let- 
ters to  Brewster  and  Robinson.  His  deceitfulness  in  ma- 
king such  professions  of  regard,  and  his  wicked  enmity  to 
those  to  whom  he  had  made  these  professions.  His  con- 
fessions when  he  was  admitted  to  the  church  '  that  he  did 
not  hold  himself  a  minister  till  he  had  a  new  calling,'  and 
his  endeavors  to  distract  the  colony  by  building  up  a 
separate  church,  and  administering  the  sacrament  by 
virtue  of  his  former  calling. 

Feebly  indeed  did  Lyford  defend  himself  by  saying  that 
many  had  complained  to  him,  and  informed  him  of  abuses ; 
but  those  whom  he  named,  denied  his  assertions. 

At  length  he  confessed  '  that  he  feared  he  was  a  rep- 
robate, his  sins  were  so  great  that  God  would  not  pardon 
them,  he  was  unsavory  salt,  and  that  he  had  so  wronged 
them  that  he  could  never  make  them  amends  ;'  confessing 
'  all  he  had  written  against  them  was  false  and  nought 
both  for  matter  and  manner.'  During  this  confession  his 
eyes  were  streaming  with  tears,  and  his  deportment  was 
so  humble  as  to  excite  compassion  notwithstanding  his 
offences. 

Both  were  convicted,  and  sentenced  to  banishment 
from  the  colony,  Oldham  to  depart  forthwith,  his  wife  and 
children,  however,  were  permitted  to  remain  through  the 
winter. 

Lyford  was  permitted  to  remain  six  months.  The  gov- 
ernor intended  to  remit  his  sentence,  if  his  deportment 
evidenced  the  sincerity  of  his  repentance  :  —  Lyford  ac- 
knowledged its  justice,  he  acknowledged  that  he  had 
slandered  the  church,  and   that  he  had  flattered  himself 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  131 

with  the  hope  of  being  able  to  draw  ofF  the  greater  part 
of  the  people  to  himself,  and  he  blessed  God  that  his 
designs  were  frustrated. —  He  charged  himself  with  pride, 
vainglory,  and  self-love,  saying,  that  he  was  liable  con- 
stantly to  evil,  and  shut  his  eyes  and  ears  to  all  good.— ^ 
He  even  said  that  if  '  God  should  make  him  a  vagabond 
in  the  earth,  as  was  Cain,  it  was  but  just.' 

Such  an  appearance  of  deep  contrition  did  he  exhibit, 
that  many  took  compassion  on  him,  and  he  was  again 
permitted  to  teach,  nay  some  were  willing  '  to  fall  upon 
their  knees,'  to  have  his  sentence  remitted. 

But  his  professions  of  repentance  were  all  false  and 
hollow  ;  in  less  than  three  months  after  his  trial  and  before 
his  probation  had  expired,  he  wrote  another  slanderous 
letter  to  the  adventurers,  which  he  entrusted  to  one  who 
had  taken  passage  in  the  Pinnace  which  was  about  to  sail 
for  London,  but  this  person  gave  the  letter  to  the  governor, 
and  his  perfidy  again  was  discovered.* 

Oldham  departed  forthwith  to  Nantasket,  where  the 
Plymouth  people  had  erected  a  building  for  the  con- 
venience of  their  trade  with  the  Indians  of  Massachusetts, 
and  thither  went  Mr  Roger  Conant  and  some  others  with 
their  families,  where  they  remained  over  a  year.  Mr  Co- 
nant was  a  pious  and  prudent  man,  and  it  seemed  unac- 
countable that  he  should  have  imbibed  so  great  a  dislike 
to  the  people  of  Plymonth  as  to  have  abandoned  them, 
and  consorted  with  Oldham  and  Lyford. 

Mr  Conant  was  afterwards  employed  by  the  people  of 
Dorchester  to  oversee  both  the  planting  and  fishing  at 
Cape  Anne,  and  Mr  Humphrey  was  appointed  their  treas- 
urer.    Lyford  was  invited  to  be  their  minister,  and  Oldham 

"-  On  the  fifth  of  August,  Mr  Thomas  Prince  who  was  afterwards  governor, 
was  married  to  Mrs  Patience  Brewster,  being  the  ninth  marriage  which  had 
been  solemnized  in  the  colony. 


132  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

to  oversee  their  trade  with  the  natives,  which  invitations 
Oldham  did  not  accept,  but  at  the  annual  election  in 
March,  1625,  he  returned  to  Plymouth  in  violation  of  his 
sentence,  by  which  he  was  required  to  obtain  leave  of  the 
governor  before  he  came  into  the  colony.  So  violent  and 
intractable  was  his  conduct,  that  his  own  associates  were 
ashamed,  and  reproved  him.  So  loud  was  he  in  discourse, 
and  so  abusive  in  his  language,  that  to  keep  the  peace 
they  were  compelled  to  confine  him. 

After  he  became  calm,  they  conducted  him  through  two 
ranks  of  armed  men  to  his  boat,  which  lay  at  the  water 
side.  The  men  were  all  ordered  to  give  him  a  blow  with 
their  muskets,  saying  at  the  same  time,  '  go,  and  mend 
your  manners.' 

While  the  peace  of  the  colony  was  thus  disturbed  at 
home,  Winslow  met  with  much  difficulty  in  England  from 
the  adventurers,  many  of  whom  took  occasion  to  indulge 
their  enmity  to  the  colonists,  by  upholding  Lyford. 

A  meeting  was  called  in  which  this  case  was  to  be  heard 
and  decided,  Mr  White  a  counsellor  of  law,  and  Mr 
Hooker,  were  chosen  moderators. 

Winslow  disclosed  some  facts  touching  the  character  of 
Lyford  while  he  was  a  minister  in  Ireland,  and  for  which 
he  had  been  compelled  to  leave  that  kingdom,  which  con- 
founded his  friends,  and  the  moderators  decided  that  the 
colonists  were  justified  in  all  their  proceedings  against 
him  for  his  conduct  at  Plymouth,  without  referring  to  his 
previous  misconduct.  Some  disclosures  of  his  profligacy 
while  he  lived  in  Ireland  having  been  made  by  his  wife, 
who  was  a  sober  and  pious  woman,  and  who  lived  in  con- 
stant apprehensions  lest  the  judgment  of  heaven  should 
overtake  him,  together  with  the  news  which  had  been 
brought  by  Winslow,  induced  him  forthwith  to  remove  to 
Nantasket.      Afterwards  upon  the  invitation  of  the  Dor- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  133 

Chester  people,  he  went  with  Mr  Conant  to  Cape  Anne, 
from  whence  he  went  to  Naumkeag,*  and  afterwards  to 
Virginia,  where  he  died. 

Oldham  remained  at  Nantasket  and  engaged  in  trade 
with  great  industry  and  success.  On  a  voyage  to  Virginia, 
while  in  danger  of  immediate  shipwreck,  he  confessed  the 
wrongs  which  he  had  done  to  the  church  and  people  of 
Plymouth,  and  he  told  the  passengers  '  that  as  he  had 
sought  their  ruin,  so  God  had  now  met  with  him,  and 
might  destroy  him ;  yea,  he  feared  that  they  all  fared  the 
worse  for  his  sake  ;  he  prayed  God  to  forgive  him,  and 
made  vows,  that  if  the  Lord  spared  his  ITfe,  he  would 
become  otherwise.' 

Whether  he  was  brought  to  a  sense  of  his  errors  by  his 
dangers,  or  his  reflections,  he  deported  himself  so  respect- 
fully afterwards  to  the  people  of  Plymouth,  that  they 
permitted  him  to  come  into  the  colony,  whenever  his  con- 
venience required.  Some  time  after,  while  on  a  trading 
voyage  to  Manisses,-j-  he  was  killed  in  a  quarrel  with  the 
Indians,  which  act  was  one  of  the  causes  of  the  Pequot 
war.  Oldham  was  a  man  of  talent,  enterprise,  and  cou- 
rage, but  very  illiterate,  and  cursed  with  a  furious  and 
ungovernable  temper. J 

*  Now  Salem.  t  Block  Island. 

1  It  cannot  now  be  doubted  that  the  faults  of  Oldham  have  been  mftch  ex- 
aggerated by  the  friends  of  Plymouth. 

After  the  settlement  of  Massachusetts,  Oldham  removed  to  Watertown,  and 
was  till  his  death,  held  in  high  respect  by  a  people  whose  standard  of  morals 
was  graduated  by  a  more  rigid  rule  than  that  of  their  Plymouth  neighbors,  and 
who  subjected  the  characters  of  men  to  severer  tests  than  were  practised  in  the 
elder  colony.  Oldham  was  the  deputy  from  Watertown  in  1632,  in  the  first 
general  coint  of  Massachusetts  to  which  deputies  from  the  towns  were  sum- 
moned. He  was  a  daring  trader  amongst  the  Indians,  and  so  great  was  the 
attachment  of  the  Narragansetts  to  him,  that  they  gave  him  an  island  in  (he 
bay,  (now  called  Prudence)  to  induce  him  to  settle  near  them. 


(       134.     ) 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Death  of  King  James  I. — Settlement  at  Mount  WoUaston  in  Quincy,  by  Capt< 
'  Wollaston. — Rebellious  and  riotous  proceedings  of  Thomas  Morton. — Check- 
ed by  Capt.  Endicott,  and  suppresssed  by  Capt.  Standish,  who  sends  Morton 
to  England  as  a  prisoner. — Returns,  and  is  again  sent  back. — Dissolution  of 
the  Company  of  Merchant  Adventurers. — Standish  goes|to  England  as  the 
agent  of  the  Colony. — Returns. — Death  of  Robinson  at  Leyden. — Death  of 
Cushman. — Settlers  engage  deeply  in  trade  and  in  fishing. — AUerton  goes  to 
England  as  agent. — Shipwreck  of  a  Virginia  ship. — The  Dutch  governor  at 
Fort  Amsterdam,  (New  York,)  sends  a  deputation  to  Plymouth. — Commer- 
cial intercourse  between  the  Dutch  and  the  people  of  Plymouth. — Re- 
turn of  Allerton. — Purchase  by  the  coSbnists  of  the  whole  trading  stock. — It* 
division  amongst  the  settlers. — Twenty  acres  of  tillage  land  in  addition  to  the 
acre  lot,  assigned  to  each  share. — Commercial  enterprise  of  the  colonists. — 
The  privilege  purchased  by  Governor  Bradford,  Winslow,  Standish,  Brews- 
ter, Alden,  Rowland,  and  Allerton. — Allerton  goes  again  to  England  as 
agent. — Returns. — Obtains  a  patent  for  Kennebeck. — John  Rodgers,  a  young 
minister,  comes  with  Allerton ;  proving  insane,  he  is  sent  back. — Erect  a 
trading  house  at  Kennebeck. — Great  success  in  selling  wampum. — King's 
proclamation,  forbidding  the  sale  of  arms  and  ammunition  to  the  Indians. — 
Allerton,  the  agent,  again  visits  England. — Settlement  at  Naumkeag,  (Sa- 
lem.)— Sickness  there. — Ralph  Smith  settled  as  the  first  pastor  of  Pl^mouth_ 
Thirtyfive  families  arrive  from  Leyden. — Allerton  returns,  and  is  sent  back 
immediately. — Another  company  arrive  from  Leyden. — Join  Shirley  and 
Hatherly  in  the  Penobscot  Patent. — Their  trading  house  robbed  by  the  crew 
of  a  French  ship. — Plots  of  the  Narragansetts  and  other  Indians. — Settlements 
about  Massachusetts  Bay. — Charlestown,  Dorchester,  Boston. — William 
Blackstone. — View  of  the  laws  and  government  of  the  colony. — Great  Pa- 
tent of  New  England. — The  two  Patents  to  John  Peirce. — The  patent  to 
William  Bradford  and  his  associates,  1629. — Surrendered  by  Governor  Brad- 
ford to  the  body  of  the  freemen,  1640. — Declaration  of  the  General  Court' 
setting  forth  their  rights  and  titles. 

On  the  twentyseventh  day  of  March,  (1625,)  died 
King  James  I,  and  he  was  succeeded  by  his  son  the  un- 
fortunate Charles. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  135 

During  this  year,  (1625,)  Captain  Wollaston  and  thirty 
others,  (most  of  whom  were  servants,  but  some  men  of 
eminence,)  commenced  a  plantation  at  a  place,  which 
they  named  Mount  Wollaston.*  Wollaston  remained 
until  the  next  year,  (1626,)  and  then  becoming  discon- 
tented, removed  to  Virginia,  taking  with  him  many  of  the 
servants,  and  disposed  of  them  there.  He  wrote  to  Ras- 
dall,  his  chief  partner,  directing  him  to  come  to  Virginia, 
with  more  of  the  servants,  intending  to  dispose  of  them 
also.  He  appointed  Mr  Fitcher  to  command  until  either 
he  or  Rasdall  should  return.  After  Rasdall's  departure, 
one  Thomas  Morton,  who  is  said  to  have  been  '  a  petti- 
fogging attorney  of  Furnival's  Inn,'  a  man  of  low  habits, 
and  who  was  held  in  contempt  by  the  company,  urged 
those  who  were  left,  and  who  were  principally  servants  and 
low  men,  to  depose  Fitcher,  and  to  live  without  any  govern- 
ment or  law  whatever,  leaving  every  man  at  perfect  liberty 
to  do  as  he  pleased,  unrestrained  by  any  regulation,  pro- 
mising to  make  them  his  equal  associates  and  partners, 
that  they  should  not  be  compelled  to  do  service  for 
any  one,  and  representing  to  them  that  on  Rasdall's  re- 
turn, they  also  would  be  carried  away  and  sold  for  slaves. 
Alarmed  and  excited  by  such  representations,  and  being 
intoxicated  at  a  great  feast  which  Morton  made  for  them, 
they  drove  Fitcher  from  the  plantation. 

Morton  and  his  fellows  commenced  a  trade  with  the 
natives,  and  acquired  much  profit.  Most  of  their  time, 
however,  was  spent  in  rioting  and  drunkenness. 

They  erected  a  May-pole,  round  which  they  would 
dance  with  the  Indian  women,  and  Morton,  who  had  some 
poetic  talent,  after  writing  obscene  and  scandalous  sa- 
tires, would  affix  them  to  the  pole 

"  In  the  northerly  part  of  Braintree,  (now  Quincy,)  in  Massachusetts. 


X36      .     MEMOIR  F  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

They  fell  into  all  kinds  of  licentiousness  and  profanity, 
and  changed  the  name  of  their  residence  from  Mount 
Wollaston  to  Merry  Mount. 

Tn  this  dissolute  and  idle  manner  they  lived  until  the 
autumn  of  1628;  —  they  then  received  '  a  check  '  from 
Captain  Endicott,  the  governor  of  Naumkeag,*  who 
coming  to  Mount  Wollaston,  reproved  them  with  great 
severity,  cut  down  their  May-pole,  and  admonished  them 
to  change  their  courses,  and  he  again  changed  the  name 
of  their  Mount,  calling  it  Mount  Dagon. 

Heedless  of  his  reproofs,  they  soon  commenced  a  traffic 
which  endangered  the  existence  of  all  the  settlements. 

Hitherto  the  English  had  scrupulously  refrained  from 
sellino-  arms  and  ammunition  to  the  Indians.  Notwith- 
standing the  great  profits  which  might  have  been  gained 
in  such  a  traffic,  they  were  wise  enough  to  refrain  from  it ; 
but  Morton  having  obtained  some  guns  and  ammunition, 
tauo-ht  the  Indians  how  to  use  them.  He  employed  them 
to  hunt  for  him,  and  purchased  their  furs. 

They  soon  became  more  expert  than  the  English  in  the 
use  of  firearms,  and  passionately  devoted  themselves  to 
hunting.  Their  bows  and  arrows  were  rejected  as  worth- 
less, and  they  would  purchase  muskets  at  any  price.  They 
were  also  taught  the  use  of  the  pistol  and  rapier,  and  the 
art  of  repairing  defective  arms. 

Encouraged  by  the  success  of  this  traffic,  Morton  sent 
to  England  for  a  new  supply. 

The  English,  well  knowing  that  it  was  the  ignorance  of 
the  natives  in  the  use  of  arms  to  which  they  owed  their 
safety,  and  now  frequently  meeting  them  in  the  woodsj 
armed,  became  alarmed. 

*  Now  Salem. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  137 

Merry  Mount  was  also  an  asylum  for  all  the  idle  and 
vicious  servants  of  the  settlers,  all  such  being  welcomed 
by  Morton,  and  admitted  into  his  company  on  terms  of 
perfect  equality.  Fearful  of  the  eifect  which  these  evil 
communications  might  produce,  the  settlers  in  all  the 
scattered  plantations  took  measures  to  break  up  ]^orton's 
establishment. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  principal  persons  from  the  settle- 
ments at  Piscataway,  Naumkeag,  Winisimit,  Wessagus- 
sett,  Nantaske  and  other  places,  it  was  resolved  to  solicit 
the  assistance  of  Plymouth  to  suppress  this  dangerous  com- 
bination before  it  grew  to  greater  strength. 

After  receiving  their  messages  and  letters,  the  govern- 
ment of  Plymouth  resolved  to  comply  with  their  request, 
but  with  the  moderation  which  characterized  all  their  pro- 
ceedings, they  first  despatched  a  messenger  to  Morton,  to 
advise  him,  in  the  spirit  of  friendship,  to  refrain  from  his 
practices,  but  he  received  the  advice  with  scorn,  asking 
'  who  had  to  do  with  him  ? '  and  declaring  that  he  would 
sell  arms  to  the  Indians  in  despite  of  any  one. 

Still  unwilling  to  come  to  extremities,  they  despatched 
another  messenger,  who  represented  to  him  that  the  safety 
of  the  country,  and  the  king's  proclamation  which  ex- 
pressly forbade  the  sale  of  munitions  of  war  to  the  Indians, 
imperiously  required  him  to  desist.  Morton  replied  that 
'  the  king's  proclamation  was  no  law,  and  had  no  penalty 
but  his  displeasure,  and  that  being  dead  his  displeasure 
died  with  him,'  and  threatened  that  if  he  were  molested, 
he  would  resist,  representing  also  that  for  resistance  he 
was  well  prepared. 

Finding  him  to  be  utterly  refractory,  they  were  con- 
vinced that  nothing  but  force  could  succeed.  The  gov- 
ernor despatched  Captain  Standish  with  a  few  men,  to 
seize  Morton. 

18 


138  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

When  Standish  arrived  at  Merry  Mount,  Morton  col- 
lected and  armed  his  companions,  and  after  heating  them 
with  liquor,  put  his  powder  and  bullets  on  the  table,  and 
barred  his  door. 

Standish  summoned  him  to  capitulate,  but  he  only 
scoffed  ^d  defied  him.  At  length,  fearful  that  his  house 
might  be  attacked,  he  came  out  with  some  of  his  follow- 
ers with  a  great  show  of  courage  to  attack  Standish,  who 
instantly  walking  up  to  him  with  a  resolute  countenance, 
so  intimidatedhim,  that  he  suffered  his  musket  to  be  taken, 
and  scarcely  resisted.  He  then  submitted  quietly,  and 
the  affair  was  terminated  without  bloodshed. 

Standish  then  entered  the  house,  and  dispersed  the 
more  turbulent  part  of  the  company,  and  leaving  the  others 
returned  to  Plymouth,  conducting  Morton  a  prisoner. 
This  affair  happened  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1628.* 
Morton  remained  at  Plymouth  until  a  ship  was  ready  to 
sail  from  the  Isle  of  Shoals,  in  which,  he  was  sent  home 
with  a  messenger  and  a  letter  to  the  Council  of  New  Eng- 
land, setting  forth  his  offences  ;  but  so  utterly  regardless 
were  the  council  of  the  interests,  the  safety,  and  the  com- 
plaints of  the  people  of  New  England,  that  they  did  not 
even  reprove  him,  and  the  next  year  (1629.)  he  returned 

*  The  following  account  of  the  expense  of  this  expedition  was  submitted  to 
the  council  of  New  England,  which  shews  the  ability  of  the  plantations  in 
1628. 

Plymouth  contributed         ..         .         . 

Naumkeag  (Salem)         ... 

Piscataway 

Mr  Jeffrey  and  Mr  Burslem     - 

Nantasket  ..... 

Mr  Thompson  (Squantum  neck) 

Mr  Blackstone  (Shawmut,  Boston) 

Mr  Edward  Hilton,  (Cocheco,  Dover) 

£12      7    0 


;2 

10 

0 

1 

10 

0 

2 

10 

0 

2 

00 

0 

1 

10 

0 

15 

0 

12 

0 

1 

00 

0 

MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  139 

to  Plymouth  in  the  capacity  of  secretary  to  Mr  Allerton, 
who  had  gone  out  as  the  agent  of  the  colony  ;  for  this, 
the  people  of  Plymouth  were  deeply  offended  with  Aller- 
ton. Morton  was  obliged  to  leave  Plymouth,  and  he 
again  went  to  Merry  Mount. 

Having  been  suspected  in  England  of  the  murder  of 
one  who  had  entrusted  him  with  money,  a  warrant  was 
issued  by  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  to  apprehend  and  bring 
him  back,  which  warrant  the  governor  of  Massachusetts 
caused  to  be  executed,  after  the  court  of  assistants  of  that 
colony  had  sentenced  him  '  to  be  set  in  the  bilbowes,'  and 
had  ordered  that  his  goods  should  be  seized  to  defray  the 
expense  of  his  transportation,  and  for  the  'payment  of  his 
debts,  and  to  satisfy  the  Indians  for  a  canoe  which  he  had 
unjustly  taken  from  them.  For  the  many  wrongs  he  had 
done  the  Indians,  they  directed  that  his  house  should  be 
burned  to  the  ground  in  their  sight.'  He  was  imprisoned 
for  a  long  time  at  the  city  of  Exeter  in  England.  After 
his  release  he  wrote  a  book,  in  which  he  defamed  many 
of  the  first  characters  in  New  England,  and  for  which, 
(many  years  afterwards,)  he  was  imprisoned  at  Boston  after 
his  third  return.  He  asserted,  how^ever,  that  many  things 
in  the  book  were  interpolated.     He  died  at  Piscataway. 

,^gp.     After  the   decision  of  Lyford   and  Oldham's  case, 
the  company  of  Merchant  Adventurers,  with  wriom 
the   Plymouth    people  had  been   so  long  connected,  was 
dissolved. 

Some  of  them  still  cherishing  their  enmity,  despatched 
a  ship  with  orders  to  take  a  stage  and  other  erections,  for 
the  purpose  of  fishing,  which  had  been  made  during  the 
preceding  year  at  Cape  Ann.  Having  reached  the 
place  before  the  Plymouth  people  arrived,  they  gained 
the  possession  of  them. 


140  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Upon  hearing  of  this  outrage,  the  governor  despatched 
Captain  Standish  to  retake  them.  He  demanded  their  in- 
stant surrender.  The  demand  being  refused,  Standish  re- 
solved to  recover  them  by  force  ;  but  Mr  Conant  who  dwelt 
there,  and  who  was  a  man  of  a  mild  and  conciliatory  dis- 
position, and  Captain  Peirce,  a  fast  friend  of  the  Plymouth 
people,  also  happening  to  be  there  with  his  ship,  interpo- 
sing their  good  offices,  the  dispute  was  compromised,  the 
ship's  crew  having  promised  to  build  another  stage. 

Some  of  the  Merchant  Adventurers  still  adhered  to  the 
colony,  and  they  wrote  by  Mr  Winslow  who  returned  this 
year  —  '  We  cannot  forget  you,  nor  disown  friendship  and 
fellowship  we  have  had  some  years, —  our  hearty  affec- 
tions towards  you,  (unknown  by  face,)  have  been  no  less 
than  to  our  nearest  friends,  yea  to  ourselves.  As  there 
has  been  a  faction  among  us,  (at  London,)  more  than  two 
years  ;  so  now  there  is  an  utter  breach  and  sequestration. 
The  company's  debts  are  not  less  than  £1400,  and  we 
hope  you  will  do  your  best  to  free  them.  We  are  still 
persuaded  that  you  are  the  people  that  must  make  a  plan- 
tation in  these  remote  places  when  all  others  fail.  We 
have  sent  some  cattle,  clothes,  hoes,  shoe  leather,  &c, 
but  in  another  nature  than  formerly,  having  committed 
them  to  the  charge  of  Mr  Allerton  and  Winslow,  to  sell 
as  our  factors.' 

The  goods  were  ordered  to  be  sold  at  seventy  per  cent, 
advance,  which  was  thought  by  the  settlers  to  be  unrea- 
sonable and  oppressive. 

They  sent  out  two  ships  to  fish  on  their  own  account, 
The  large  ship  made  a  great  fare.  The  small  one  was  la- 
den with  fish  and  eight  hundred  pounds  of  beaver.  The 
captain  of  the  large  ship,  fearful  of  a  war  with  France, 
instead  of  going  to  Spain  to  sell  his  fish,  put  into  Ports- 
mouth, towing  in  the  other  ship.     An  Algerine  corsair  at- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  ^41 

tacked  and  captured  the  small  ship  in  sight  of  Plymouth 
in  England,  and  carried  the  captain  and  crew  to  Sallee, 
where  they  were  sold  for  slaves. 

Standish,  who  went  out  this  year  as  agent,  escaped  pro- 
videntially ;  for  he  had  first  embarked  in  the  small  ship, 
and  afterwards  left  her  and  took  passage  in  the  large 
one.  By  this  undertaking  the  adventurers  sustained  a 
great  loss. 

Standish  arrived  in  London  at  a  most  unfortunate  time. 
The  plague  was  then  raging  with  such  violence,  that  no 
business  could  be  transacted.  He  however  had  a  satisfac- 
tory interview  with  the  council.  In  the  month  of  April 
(1626,)  he  returned,  having  taken  up  £150  at  fifty  per 
cent,  which  he  laid  out  in  goods,  and  he  commenced  a 
negotiation  with  the  company  for  the  sale  of  their  invest- 
ed property  in  the  Plymouth  concern. 

He  was  the  bearer  of  sorrowful  tidings.  Many  of  their 
friends  in  England  had  died  of  the  plague.  Robinson 
had  died  at  Leyden.  Mr  Roger  White  in  a  letter  to  Elder 
Brewster  dated  at  Leyden,  gives  this  account  of  his  death. 
'  It  has  pleased  the  Lord  to  take  out  of  this  vale  of  tears, 
your  and  our  loving  and  faithful  pastor,  Mr  Robinson ;  he 
fell  sick  Saturday  morning,  February  22,  1625.  Next  day 
taught  us  twice,  on  the  week  grew  weaker  every  day  feel- 
ing little  or  no  pain.  Sensible  to  the  last,  departed  this 
life  first  of  March.  Had  a  continual  inward  ague.  All 
his  friends  came  freely  to  him,  and  if  prayers,  tears,  or 
means,  would  have  saved  his  life,  he  had  not  gone  hence. 
We  still  hold  close  together  in  peace,  wishing  that  you  and 
we  were  again  together.' 

Mr  Robinson  was  born  in  England,  in  1575.  It  is  be- 
lieved, although  it  is  not  certainly  known,  that  he  was 
educated  at  Cambridge.  He  had  a  benefice  near  Yarmouth, 
in  the  county  of  Norfolk,  but  his  puritan  principles  were 


142  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

SO  strict  that  he  submitted  to  no  compromises,  and  in  con- 
sequence, suffered  much  from  persecution. 

About  the  year  1602,  he  became  the  pastor  of  the  church 
which  fled  to  Holland  in  1608.  He  was  but  fifty  when  he 
died.  Much  may  be  learned  of  his  history  and  character 
from  the  preceding  pages. 

Secretary  Morton  says  '  he  was  a  man  of  a  learned, 
polished,  and  moderate  spirit ;  pious  and  studious  of  the 
truth  ;  largely  accomplished  with  gifts  and  qualifications 
suitable  to  be  a  shepherd  over  this  flock  of  Christ.' 

The  following  masterly  delineation  of  his  character  is 
the  work  of  a  modern  writer.*  '  Mr  Robinson  was  a  man  of 
good  genius,  quick  penetration,  ready  wit,  great  modesty, 
integrity,  and  candor.  His  classic  literature  and  acuteness 
in  disputation,  were  acknowledged  by  his  adversaries. 
His  manners  were  easy,  courteous,  and  obliging.  His 
preaching  was  instructive  and  affecting.  Though  in  his 
younger  years  he  was  rigid  in  his  separation  from  the 
Episcopal  Church,  by  whose  governors  he  and  his  friends 
were  treated  with  unrelenting  severity,  yet  when  convinc- 
ed of  his  error,  he  openly  acknowledged  it,  and  by  expe- 
rience and  conversation  with  good  men,  became  moderate 
and  charitable,  without  abating  his  zeal  for  strict  and  real 
religion.  It  is  always  a  sign  of  a  good  heart,  when  a  man 
becomes  mild  and  candid  as  he  grows  in  years.  This  was 
eminently  true  of  Mr  Robinson.  He  learned  to  esteem  all 
good  men  of  every  religious  persuasion,  and  charged  his 
flock  to  maintain  the  like  candid  and  benevolent  conduct. 
His  sentiments  respecting  the  reformers  as  expressed  in 
his  valedictory  discourse,  will  entail  immortal  honor  to  his 
memory  ;  evidencing  his  accurate  discernment,  his  inflex- 
ible honesty,   and  his  fervent  zeal  for  truth  and  a  good 

*  Dr  Belknap, 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  143 

conscience.  He  was  also  possessed  in  an  eminent  degree, 
of  the  talent  of  peace  making,  and  was  happy  in  composing 
differences  among  neighbors  and  in  families  ;  so  that  peace 
and  union  were  preserved  in  his  congregation.'  —  Besides 
his  singular  abilities  in  moral  and  theological  matters,  he 
was  very  discerning  and  prudent  in  civil  affairs,  and  able 
to  give  them  good  advice  in  regard  to  their  secular  and 
political  conduct.  He  was  highly  esteemed,  not  only  by 
his  own  flock,  but  by  the  magistracy  and  clergy  of  Leyden, 
who  gave  him  the  use  of  one  of  their  churches,  in  the 
chancel  of  which  he  was  buried.  Mr  Prince  who  visited 
that  city  in  1714,  says  that  the  most  ancient  people  then 
living  told  him  from  their  parents,  that  the  whole  city  and 
university  regarded  him  as  a  great  and  good  man,  whose 
death  they  sincerely  lamented.* 

The  letters  which  were  received  from  Leyden  were  full 
of  lamentations,  and  the  writers  seemed  to  despair  of 
reaching  America. 

Standish  also  brought  news  of  the  death  of  Mr  Cush- 
man,  who  had  been  the  principal  agent  in  all  the  early 
transactions  with  the  Virginia  company.  Cushman  went 
over  to  Holland  with  Mr  Robinson.  He  embarked  at 
South  Hampton  for  America  in  the  summer  of  1620,  but 
after  the  ship  was  compelled  to  return  to  England,  he  was 
unwilling  at  that  time  to  attempt  the  voyage  again,  but 
remained  with  his  family.  In  November,  1621,  he  came 
over  in  the  Fortune,  but  returned  in  the  same  ship  accord- 
ing to  the  orders  of  the  merchant  adventurers,  who  wished 

*  After  the  death  of  Mr  Robinson,  his  widow  and  children  came  to  America. 
His  son  Isaac  was  much  respected,  he  resided  at  Barnstable,  of  which  town  he 
was  occasionally  a  deputy  in  the  general  court,  but  he  fell  into  discredit  about 
the  time  that  severe  measures  were  adopted  against  the  Quakers,  as  his  princi- 
ples were  tolerant,  and  he  was  not  disposed  to  molest  any  for  their  conscientious 
belief.     He  lived  until  he  was  ninety.     His  posterity  are  numerous. 


144  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY, 

to  learn  from  him  the  exact  and  true  situation,  and  pros- 
pects of  the  colony.  On  his  return  he  was  captured  by 
the  French,  but  was  soon  released.  He  never  returned  to 
Plymouth,  but  was  constantly  engaged  in  the  service  of 
the  Colony.  He  died  in  1626.  Cushman  was  a  learned, 
acute,  sagacious,  and  enterprising  person.  He  had  great 
knowledge  of  human  nature,  and  was  a  sincere  and  pious 
Christian.  While  at  Plymouth,  he  delivered  a  discourse 
on  the  '  sin  and  danger  of  self-love,'  which  is  a  perform- 
ance of  uncommon  merit.* 

So  favorable  had  been  the  harvest  of  the  preceding 
year,  that  the  product  was  more  than  sufficient  for  the 
wants  of  the  people.  A  large  shallop  laden  with  corn 
was  despatched  to  the  Kennebeck  river  under  the  direction 
of  Mr  Winslow.  He  succeeded  in  his  enterprise,  and 
returned  with  700  pounds  of  beaver,  besides  other  furs. 

Animated  by  their  success,  the  settlers  planted  largely, 
and  engaged  deeply  in  trade. 

Hearing  that  the  establishment  at  Munhiggon  was  about 
to  be  relinquished,  the  governor  and  Mr  Winslow  went 
there  to  purchase  the  goods,  and  meeting  with  David 
Thompson,  who  had  again  returned  to  Piscataway,  and 
who  was  there  on  the  same  design,  they  joined  in  the  ad- 
venture, and  purchased  goods  to  the  amount  of  £500  and 
several  goats,  for  which  they  paid  in  beaver  and  other 
commodities. 

After  the  harvest,  they  were  able  from  the  proceeds  of 
these  goods,  and  of  their  corn,  to  pay  the  money  which 
had  been  taken  up  by  Standish,  and  the  remnants  of  their 
old  debts,  and  to  obtain  some  clothing  and  other  articles. 

*  After  the  death  of  Mr  Cushman,  his  family  came  to  Plymouth.  His  son 
Thomas  Cushman  succeeded  Mr  Brewster  as  the  ruling  elder  of  the  church  in 
1649,  and  continued  in  that  office  until  his  death,  at  the  age  of  eightyfour  in  1691. 
Elder  Cushman  was  a  man  of  great  piety  and  woith. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  145 

In  the  autumn,  Mr  Allerton  went  out  to  England  as 
agent,  designing  to  effect  a  final  settlement  with  the 
adventurers,  to  take  up  more  money,  and  to  purchase 
goods. 

The  Dorchester  adventurers  at  Cape  Anne  becoming 
dissatisfied  with  their  situation,  and  being  about  to  aban- 
dor^  the  place,  Mr  Conant  together  with  John  Woodberry, 
John  Balch,  and  Peter  Palfrey,  by  the  persuasions  of  Mr 
White,  who  was  extremely  anxious  to  preserve  a  colony  in 
the  neighborhood,  were  induced  to  go  to  Naumkeag  in  the 
autumn  of  1626.  Lyford  went  with  them.  Mr  White 
promised  to  procure  a  patent,  and  to  send  men,  provisions, 
and  a  stock  of  merchandise. 

A  ship  bound  to  Virginia,  having  been  cast  away  on  the 
south  side  of  Cape  Cod,  the  captain  sent  two  of  his  men 
with  Indian  guides  to  Plymouth,  to  solicit  the  governor  to 
send  him  a  supply  of  pitch,  oakum,  spikes,  and  corn. 

The  governor  taking  a  supply  of  these  articles,  sailed 
up  a  creek  on  the  north  side  of  the  Cape  called  Naum- 
skaket,  from  whence  the  land  transportation  across  to  the 
sea  was  only  two  miles. 

The  Indians  conveyed  his  stores.  After  supplying  the 
ship,  he  purchased  a  boat  load  of  corn,  and  returned  home, 
but  the  ship  being  repaired  was  again  driven  on  shore 
in  a  great  storm,  and  rendered  completely  unseaworthy. 
The  crew  and  passengers  were  anxious  to  go  to  Plymouth. 
The  people  of  Plymouth  being  informed  of  their  disaster, 
assisted  them  in  the  transportation  of  their  goods,  and 
received  them  into  their  houses.  The  principal  men 
amongst  them  were  Messrs  Fells  and  Silsby. 

Despairing  of  reaching  Virginia  before  the  end   of  the 

next  year,  they  solicited  the  use  of  some  land,  which  their 

servants  cleared  and   planted,  and  raised  a  great  quantity 

of  corn.      At  the  latter  end  of  the  summer,  (1627)  they 

19 


146  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

sailed  for  Virginia  in  two  barques,  having  sold  their  corn 
at  Plymouth.  Many  times  after,  they  took  occasion  to 
express  their  thankfulness  for  the  kindness  which  they  had 
experienced. 

,^27  In  the  month  of  March,  a  deputation  from  the 
Dutch  governor  at  Fort  Amsterdam,  bearing  a  let- 
ter written  both  in  Dutch,  and  in  French,  (dated  March  9th 
1627,  and  subscribed  by  Isaac  De  Rasier  secretary,)  ar- 
rived at  Plymouth. 

The  Dutch  had  just  commenced  their  settlement  at 
Manhattan  or  Manhadoes,*  where  they  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  trade  for  several  years. 

They  congratulated  the  people  of  Plymouth  on  the 
success  of  their  praiseworthy  undertaking,  and  proffered 
their  good  will  and  service  '  in  all  friendly  kindness  and 
good  neighborhood,'  and  they  concluded  by  offering  '  any 
of  their  goods  that  might  be  serviceable,'  declaring  '  that 
they  should  take  themselves  bound  to  accommodate  and 
help  their  Plymouth  neighbors  with  any  wares  that  they 
should  be  pleased  to  deal  for.' 

Governor  Bradford  in  his  answer  to  the  Dutch  governor 
expressed  his  sense  of  the  kindness  which  the  people  of 
Plymouth  had  received  from  the  Dutch  in  their  own  coun- 
try, and  their  '  grateful  acceptance  of  their  offered  friend- 
ship.' 

Early  in  the  next  year,  De  Rasier  came  to  Manomet  in 
a  vessel  which   was   laden  with  sugar,  linen,  stuffs,  &c. 

Being  desirous  to  visit  Plymouth,  a  boat  was  despatched 
by  the  governor  to  Manonscusset  to  receive  him  and  his 
company ;  he  arrived  at  Plymouth  attended  according  to 
the  fashion  of  the  Dutch  by  trumpeters. 

*  Now  New  York. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  147 

Here  he  and  his  company  were  kindly  entertained  for 
several  days,  and  when  they  returned  to  Manomet,  several 
of  the  Plymouth  people  accompanied  them  and  purchased 
many  of  their  goods.  After  this,  the  Dutch  often  came 
to  Manomet  and  exchanged  their  linen  and  stuffs  for  to- 
bacco, which  trade  was  extremely  advantageous  to  the 
people  of  Plymouth  until  the  Virginians  found  out  the 
Dutch  colony,  and  drove  them  from  this  market  by  under- 
selling. 

The  first  intercourse  between  these  two  infant  settle- 
ments of  neighboring  European  nations,  was  conducted 
in  the  very  spirit  of  amity,  but  their  friendship  suffered 
some  interruption  afterwards. 

In  the  spring  of  this  year,  Mr  Allerton  returned,  having 
taken  up  £200  for  the  colony,  at  thirty  per  cent,  which 
was  invested  in  goods. 

Having  been  assisted  by  many  true  friends  of  the  colony, 
he  succeeded  after  much  trouble  in  purchasing  all  the 
interest  of  the  company  of  adventurers. 

The  agreement  was  signed  on  the  15th  of  November, 
(1626)  subject  to  the  acceptance  of  the  people  of  Ply- 
mouth. 

The  company  sold  to  the  colony  all  their  shares,  stocks, 
merchandise,  lands,  and  chattels,  in  consideration  of 
£1800,  to  be  paid  at  the  Royal  Exchange  in  London, 
every  Michaelmas,  in  nine  annual  and  equal  payments,  the 
first  of  which  was  to  be  made  in  1628.  This  agreement 
was  approved.  Yet  the  settlers  were  distrustful  of  their 
ability  to  provide  for  the  annual  payments,  and  their  own 
wants  ;  and  the  rate  of  interest  was  at  that  time  exorbi- 
tant. Yet  despair  formed  no  part  of  their  character,  they 
always  lived  in  hope,  and  trusted  to  God.  Allerton's 
agreement  was  unanimously  sanctioned,  and  seven  or  eight 
of  the  principal  men  became  jointly  bound   in  behalf  of 


148  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

the  others  for  the  true   payment  of  this   sum,   but  it  was 
done  at  much  risk. 

To  identify  the  interest,  and  to  give  satisfaction  to  the 
whole,  every  head  of  a  family  and  every  prudent  young 
man  who  was  of  age,  both  of  the  first  and  later  comers, 
were  admitted  into  a  general  partnership,  and  all  agreed 
that  the  trade  should  be  managed  as  usual,  devoting  all  its 
profits  to  the  payment  of  the  debt, — that  every  single 
freeman  should  have  a  single  share,  and  that  every  father 
of  a  family  should  have  leave  to  purchase  a  share  for 
himself,  another  for  his  wife,  and  one  for  each  of  his  chil- 
dren who  lived  with  him,  and  that  every  one  should  pay 
his  share  of  the  debts  according  to  his  number  of  shares. 
One  cow  and  two  goats  were  divided  by  lot  to  every  six 
shares,  and  the  swine  in  proportion.  And  to  every  share 
in  addition  to  the  acre  lots  which  they  already  held,  and 
the  gardens  and  homestead  of  which  they  were  possessed, 
twenty  acres  of  tillage  land  was  assigned  by  lot,  which 
were  to  be  five  acres  broad  on  the  water,  and  four  acres 
deep.  No  meadows  were  laid  out  at  this  time,  because 
the  quantity  of  meadow  land  being  small,  they  were  fearful 
that  some  might  be  prevented  from  settling  with  them,  if 
the  meadows  were  all  taken  up  and  holden  in  severalty. 

Mowing  places  were  assigned  as  the  seasons  came  round 
to  all  the  families  according  to  their  number  of  cattle. 

The  settlers  now  began  to  make  vigorous  efforts  to  free 
themselves  from  debt,  and  for  this  purpose  engaged  more 
extensively  in  trade. 

They  built  a  small  pinnace  at  Manomet,  a  place  on  the 
sea,  on  the  south  side  of  Cape  Cod,  distant  twenty  miles 
from  Plymouth,  and  by  navigating  a  creek  on  the  north 
side,  they  were  enabled  to  transport  their  goods  thither, 
with  only  four  or  five  miles  of  land  transportation  ;  in 
this  way  they  avoided  the  dangerous  navigation  around 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  149 

the  Cape.  For  the  safety  of  their  vessel  and  goods,  they 
built  a  house,  and  kept  a  few  servants  there,  who  attend- 
ed to  agriculture,  and  navigated  the  vessel.  In  this  en- 
terprise they  met  with  much  success. 

The  remainder  of  Robinson's  church  at  Leyden,  after 
the  death  of  their  pastor,  were  anxious  to  come  to  Ame- 
rica, and  the  people  of  Plymouth  were  equally  anxious  to 
see  them.  To  effect  their  removal,  the  governor,  together 
with  Edward  Winslow,  Miles  Standish,  William  Brewster, 
John  Alden,  John  Rowland,  and  Isaac  Allerton,  ventured 
to  hire  the  whole  trade  of  the  colony  for  six  years  from  the 
last  day  of  September,  (1627,)  and  for  this  and  the  shallop, 
and  pinnace,  and  stock  at  Manomet,  they  agreed  to  pay 
all  the  debts  of  the  colony,  including  the  large  one  to 
the  adventurers,  in  all  amounting  to  £2400,  and  to  sup- 
ply the  people  every  year  with  shoes  and  hoes  to  the 
amount  of  £50,  to  sell  them  what  corn  they  should  want 
at  6s  the  bushel,  and  at  the  expiration  of  the  six  years  to 
restore  the  trade  to  the  colony. 

In  one  of  the  fishing  vessels  which  returned  in  the  au- 
tumn of  this  year,  Allerton,  who  was  again  appointed 
agent,  took  passage. 

Upon  presenting  nine  bonds  to  the  adventurers,  of 
£200  each,  they  executed  and  delivered  a  conveyance  of 
their  whole  interest  in  New  Plymouth. 

Allerton  carried  out  some  beaver,  wherewith  to  pay  some 
of  the  engagements  of  the  preceding  year,  as  the  settlers 
were  very  anxious  to  relieve  themselves  from  the  exorbitant 
interest  with  which  they  were  charged.  He  was  instructed 
to  obtain  a  patent  for  a  trading  place  on  the  Kennebeck 
river,  as  the  Piscataway  planters  threatened  to  exclude 
those  of  Plymouth  from  that  trade,  and  he  was  also  in- 
structed to  endeavor  to  obtain  the  assistance  of  some  of 
their  London  friends  to  enable  them  to  discharge  their 
debts  and  to  bring  their  friends  over  from  Leyden. 


150  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Mr  James  Shirley,  an  eminent  London  merchant,  and  a 
zealous  friend  of  the  colony,  wrote  to  the  people  of  Ply- 
mouth that  '  the  sole  cause  why  the  greater  part  of  the 
adventurers  maligned  him  was  because  he  would  not  side 
with  them  against  the  people  of  Plymouth,  and  the  com- 
ing over  of  the  Leyden  people  ;' —  and,  (says  he)  '  as- 
suredly unless  the  Lord  be  merciful  to  us,  and  the  whole 
land  in  general,  our  condition  is  far  worse  than  yours; 
wherefore  if  the  Lord  send  persecution  here,  which  is 
much  to  be  feared,  and  should  put  into  our  minds  to  fly 
for  refuge,  I  know  no  place  safer  than  to  come  to  you.' 
From  this  it  would  seem  that  the  English  Puritans  had  it 
early  in  their  contemplations  to  fly  to  America,  and  had 
they  not  succeeded  in  their  contest  with  King  Charles, 
the  American  wilderness  would  have  been  peopled  with 
great  rapidity. 

Early  in  the  next  year,  (1628,)  Allerton  returned,  hav- 
ing succeeded  in  all  his  objects.  He  paid  the  first  £200 
to  the  adventurers,  and  all  their  other  debts  excepting 
those  which  were  due  to  Shirley,  Beauchamp  and  An- 
drews. These  gentlemen  offered  to  become  partners  on 
equal  terms  with  the  governor  and  his  associates  in  the 
trade  of  the  colony,  and  engaged  to  send  out  some,  if  not 
all,  their  Leyden  friends.  He  also  brought  out  the  neces- 
sary goods,  and  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  patent  for 
Kennebeck,  but  its  boundaries  were  so  loose  and  unde- 
fined, that  another  was  applied  for,  more  definite  and 
precise  in  its  descriptions,  which  was  obtained  in  the  suc- 
ceeding year. 

With  Allerton  came  a  young  minister  of  the  name  of 
Rodgers.  The  settlers  had  been  in  constant  expecta- 
tion of  the  arrival  of  Robinson,  and  they  therefore  had 
never  ordained  a  pastor  or  teaching  elder,  which  was  the 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY,  151 

less  to  be  regretted,  as  their  ruling  elder,  Brewster,  was 
so  eminently  qualified,  but  in  consequence  of  the  death 
of  Robinson  they  were  induced  to  seek  one. 

It  was,  however,  unfortunate  for  the  colony  that  Rodgers 
came,  as  he  became  insane,  and  was  sent  home  the  next 
year  at  their  charge. 

On  the  river  Kennebeck,  a  trading  house  Avas  erected, 
and  was  constantly  supplied  with  corn  and  goods.  Having 
learned  from  the  Dutch  the  great  advantages  which  were 
to  be  derived  in  the  Indian  trade  from  wampum  or  wampum- 
peag,  the  settlers  were  induced  to  purchase  of  the  arti- 
cle to  the  amount  of  £50,  and  to  send  it  to  Kennebeck  :  — 
Here  it  remained  on  hand  for  two  years,  but  the  in- 
terior Indians  having  heard  of  it,  were  so  anxious  to  obtain 
it,  that  it  became  almost  impossible  to  supply  the  demand. 
By  the  monopoly  of  this  article  alone,  they  engrossed  the 
whole  trade  on  that  river,  to  the  exclusion  both  of  the 
fishermen,  and  other  planters. 

The  king  of  England  by  proclamation  had  forbidden 
his  subjects  to  sell  arms  or  ammunition  to  the  Indians,  but 
they  soon  began  to  obtain  them,  and  were  taught  the  use 
of  them  by  the  French,  who  traded  in  the  eastern  parts 
of  New  England,  and  sometimes  by  the  English  fishermen, 
in  defiance  of  the  king's  order. 

In  the  autumn  of  this  year,  (1628)  Allerton  again  went 
to  England  to  obtain  the  enlargement  and  correction  of 
the  Kennebeck  patent,  and  also  another  patent  for 
Plymouth,  and  to  facilitate  the  removal  of  the  church  at 
Leyden.* 

Many  of  the  servants  who  had  been  sent  out  by  the 
patentees  of  Massachusetts,  fell  sick,  Mr  Endicot  wrote 

*  Bichard  Warren,  a  man  who  had  been  extremely  useful  in  the  affairs  of 
the  colony,  and  who  was  highly  respected  by  the  people,  died  this  year. 


1 52  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

to  Governor  Bradford  beseeching  him  to  send  Dr  Fuller  to 
Naumkeag,  which  he  did. 

Fuller  being  a  deacon  of  the  church  at  Plymouth,  and 
well  versed  in  its  rules  and  discipline,  gave  much  valuable 
information  to  Endicot  respecting  the  formation  of  a 
church  at  Naumkeag.  Endicot  gratefully  acknowledged 
the  services  of  Fuller,  when  he  again  wrote  to  Governor 
Bradford.* 

Some  of  the  Plymouth  people  having  found  Mr  Smith 
at  Nantasket,  at  his  request,  conveyed  him  to  Plymouth, 
where  he  was  kindly  received  and  urged  to  remain.  His 
servants,  and  his  goods  being  conveyed  to  Plymouth,  he 
settled  there,  and  was  afterwards  chosen  their  first  pastor, 
and  remained  there  several  years. 

*  Endicot's  letter  to  Governor  Bradford. 
'  Right  worshipful  Sir, 

'  It  is  a  thing  not  usual,  that  servants  to  one  master,  and  of  the  same  house- 
hold, should  be  strangers  : — I  assure  you  I  desire  it  not.  Nay,  to  speak  more 
plainly,  I  cannot  be  so  to  you.  God's  people  are  all  marked  with  one  and  the 
same  mark,  and  have  for  the  main,  one,  and  the  same  heart,  guided  by  one 
and  the  same  spirit  of  truth  ;  and  where  this  is,  there  can  be  no  discord,  nay 
here  must  needs  be  a  sweet  harmony  ;  and  the  same  request  with  you,  I  make 
unto  the  Lord,  that  we,  as  Christian  brethren,  be  united  by  an  heavenly  and 
unfeigned  love,  bending  all  our  hearts  and  forces  in  furthering  a  work  beyond 
our  strength,  with  reverence  and  fear,  fastening  our  eyes  always  on  Him  that 
is  only  able  to  direct  and  prosper  all  our  ways.  I  acknowledge  myself  much 
bound  to  you  for  your  kind  love  and  care,  in  sending  Mr  Fuller  amongst  us, 
and  rejoice  much  that  I  am  by  him  satisfied  touching  your  judgment  of  the  out- 
ward form  of  God's  worship.  It  is,  as  far  as  I  can  gather,  no  more  than  is 
warranted  by  the  evidence  of  truth,  and  the  same  which  I  have  professed  and 
maintained  ever  since  the  Lord  in  mercy  revealed  himself  unto  me,  being  far 
from  the  common  report  that  hath  been  spread  of  you,  touching  that  particu- 
lar ;  but  God's  children  must  now  look  for  less  here  below  ;  and  it  is  a  great 
mercy  of  God  that  he  strengthened  them  to  go  through  it.  I  shall  not  need,  at 
this  time,  to  enlarge  unto  you,  for  (God  willing,)  I  purpose  to  see  your  face 
shortly,  in  the  meantime,  I  humbly  take  ray  leave  of  you,  committing  you  to 
the  Lord's  blessing,  and  protection,  and  rest. 

Your  assured  loving  friend, 
Naumkeag,  May  11th  1629.  John  Endicot. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  j  53 

In  the  month  of  August,  (1629)  thirtyfive  families  ar- 
rived from  Leyden,  at  Plymouth.  They  were  received 
with  great  joy.  The  expenses  of  their  transportation  were 
paid  gratuitously  by  the  undertakers.  Houses  were  as- 
signed to  them.  Grounds  were  prepared  for  their  use,  and 
they  were  subsisted  out  of  the  public  stores  formore  than 
a  year. 

-Mr  Allerton  returned  without  effecting  his  design,  but 
being  sent  back  immediately  had  better  success.  On 
the  eighth  of  March,  in  the  succeeding  year,  another  com- 
pany arrived  from  Leyden,  who  were  equally  well  received. 
Their  transportation  was  also  paid  gratuitously  by  the  un- 
dertakers, although  it  amounted  to  £550. 

The  generosity  of  the  chiefs  of  the  colony  to  their  Ley- 
den brethren  is  unparalleled.  They  almost  deprived  them- 
selves of  the  common  necessaries  of  life  to  get  ihem  over, 
and  to  support  them  until  they  were  able  to  support  them- 
selves, laboring  at  the  same  time  under  heavy  debts,  for 
which  they  paid  exorbitant  interest;  but  their  necessities 
seemed  only  to  stimulate  them  to  greater  exertions.  Shir- 
ley and  Hatherly,  having  taken  out  a  patent  to  trade  with 
the  Indians  at  Penobscot,  they  requested  the  Plymouth 
undertakers  to  join  them  in  this  enterprise,  which  they  did 
with  much  reluctance.  Edward  Ashley  had  been  des- 
patched from  England,  to  superintend  the  trade.  The 
undertakers  sent  Thomas  Willet,  who  had  lately  arrived 
from  Leyden,  a  discreet  and  faithful  young  man,  in  whom 
they  had  confidence,  with  a  store  of  wampum,  and  corn, 
and  united  him  with  Ashley,  in  the  superintendency. 
The  next  year,  (1631)  Ashley  having  sold  ammunition  in 
violation  of  his  bond,  was  sent  as  a  prisoner  to  Eng'and. 
In  1632,  Willet  and  the  greater  part  of  his  company  being 
absent  at  Plymouth,  (whither  they  had  gone  to  obtain  a 
supply  of  goods,)  a  small  French  ship  went  into  the  har- 
20 


154  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH   COLONY. 

bor  under  the  pretence  of  distress,  and  finding  but  three  or 
four  servants,  who  were  ignorant  and  simple  men,  by  a 
stratagem,  obtained  possession  of  their  arms,  and  robbed 
them  of  all  their  goods  to  the  amount  of  £500,  and  leaving 
a  taunting  message  for  the  master,  departed. 

During  the  spring,  (1630)  John  Sagamore  a  friendly 
Indian,  revealed  to  the  English  at  Charlestown,  a  conspi- 
racy amongst  many  of  the  tribes,  of  whom  the  Narragan- 
setts  were  the  chief,  to  des-troy  the  English.  For  this  pur- 
pose the  Indians  besought  the  governor  of  Plymouth  for 
leave  to  'have  some  sport  there,' but  he  having  refused  them, 
they  said  '  if  they  might  not  come  with  leave,  they  would 
without;'  but  the  English  making  preparations  everywhere 
to  receive  them,  they  abandoned  their  designs. 

Having  reached  this  stage  in  our  history,  it  seems  pro- 
per to  review  the  civil,  ecclesiastical,  and  military  policy 
of  the  pilgrims. 

They  acknowledged  an  obligation  to  obey  the  laws  of 
England  generally,  and  in  their  instrument  of  government, 
recognise  King  James  as  their  sovereign,  but  otherwise  they 
were  a  voluntary  association,  governed  by  the  majority, 
a  pure,  unmixed,  and  perfect  democracy,  where  all  power 
was  exercised  by  the  whole  people. 

The  power  of  the  governor  seems  to  have  been  but  little 
superior  to  that  of  any  other  individual,  and  was  derived 
not  from  any  constitutional  authority  delegated  to  him, 
but  merely  from  a  degree  of  influence  arising  in  some 
measure  from  his  station,  but  principally  from  his  personal 
qualifications  and  character. 

It  does  not  seem  that  any  judicial,  executive,  or  legis- 
lative power  was  attached  to  his  office,  all  that  power 
being  exercised  by  the  whole  body  of  the  freemen  or 
associates.      Before  them,  trials  for  offences  were  holden. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  155 

and  punishments  were  inflicted  by  their  order.  The  gov- 
ernor in  some  cases  previous  to  the  establishment  of  juries, 
remitted  punishments ;  he  remitted  that  of  the  duellists 
Doty  and  Leister,  after  it  had  been  partially  administered. 

This  usage  did  not  prevail  for  more  than  four  years. 
The  pilgrims  although  they  had  been  domiciliated  in 
Holland,  retained  all  their  predilections  for  the  English 
law,  and  they  soon  adopted  its  noblest  provision  by  estab- 
lishing the  right  of  trial  by  jury,  which  was  secured  in  the 
following  ordinance. 

'  It  is  ordained  17th  day  of  December,  anno  domini  1623, 
by  this  court,  then  held,  that  all  criminal  facts,  and  also 
all  matters  of  trespass  and  debts  between  man  and  man, 
should  be  tried  by  the  verdict  of  twelve  honest  men,  to  be 
impannelled  by  authority,  in  form  of  a  jury  upon  their 
oaths.' 

Their  military  orders  and  arrangements  were  decided 
by  a  majority,  and  the  officers  were  elected.  Standish  to 
whom  the  military  power  was  given,  possessed  more  than 
the  governor. 

In  ecclesiastical  affairs,  the  governor  did  not  interfere 
more  than  any  other  individual. 

In  1621,  one  assistant  was  given  to  the  governor.  His 
office  was  nominal,  and  he  was  considered  rather  as  one 
designated  to  fulfil  the  functions  of  the  executive  office 
during  the  absence,  sickness,  or  inability  of  the  governor, 
and  to  preside  after  his  death  until  a  successor  could  be 
supplied  by  election. 

In  1624,  the  number  of  assistants  was  increased  to  five, 
and  the  one  first  named  was  considered  as  the  deputy 
governor. 

The  governor  at  this  time  was  allowed  a  double  voice. 
But  still  the  power  both  of  the  governor  and  assistants 
may  be   considered   as  advisory  and  influential,  and  not 


156  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

actual,  and  humble  as  it  was,  arising  from  necessity,  and 
not  from  grant.  It  is  said  in  the  account  of  Lyford's  trials 
that  the  governor  called  a  court.  It  would  therefore  ap- 
pear that  the  power  to  convene  the  company  was  in  hira. 

In  weighty  matters  he  usually  invited  the  pastor  and 
ruling  elder  to  assist  in  council. 

The  first  offence  was  committed  by  John  Billington,  a 
turbulent  and  malignant  man  who  afterwards  was  tried 
and  executed  for  murder.  His  offence  was  '  contempt  of 
the  captain's  lawful  command,  with  opprobrious  speeches.'^ 
For  this  offence,  '  he  was  convented  before  the  whole 
company,  and  adjudged  to  have  his  neck  and  heels  tied 
together  ;  but  after  humbling  himself  and  craving  pardon, 
he  was  forgiven.' 

One  of  the  punishments  was  banishment,  which  was 
inflicted  upon  Lyford  and  Oldham,  who  were  both  by  vote 
expelled  from  the  colony. 

This  was  for  plotting  and  writing  against  the  colony, 
and  attempting  to  excite  a  sedition.  This  punishment  was 
ordered  by  the  people,  and  before  them,  the  trial  was 
holden. 

After  this,  the  church  prevented  Lyford  from  teaching, 
until  upon  his  contrite  behavior,  they  forgave  him  and 
permitted  him  to  teach. 

Upon  Oldham's  return  without  leave,  the  company 
ordered  him  to  be  punished  with  blows  inflicted  by  mus- 
kets. 

It  cannot  be  ascertained  that  they  had  during  this  pe- 
riod any  written  code  of  laws,  descriptive  of  offences,  and 
defining  the  limits  of  punishment,  but  the  people  took 
upon  themselves  the  execution  of  justice,  and  inflicted 
punishment  at  discretion,  until  the  establishment  of  juries. 

In  their  intercourse  with  the  Indian  nations,  they  as- 
sumed sovereign   power,  engaging  in  war,  making  peace. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  j  57 

forming  treaties,  and  receiving  (in  behalf  of  the  king  of 
England,  however,)  the  allegiance  of  the  natives. 

In  their  proceedings  against  Morton,  who  could  not  be 
considered  according  to  the  notions  of  the  present  day  in 
any  wise  amenable  to  them,  they  acted  upon  the  para- 
mount principle  of  self-preservation. —  That  Morton  had 
as  much  right  to  sell  arms  and  ammunition  to  the  Indians, 
as  they  had  to  forbid  him  would  scarcely  be  controverted 
at  the  present  day,  and  the  jurists  of  this  age  would 
agree  that  the  king's  proclamation,  he  being  dead, 
was  invalid.  A  proclamation  is  a  personal  act  of  the 
reigning  king,  and  has  not  the  enduring  and  immutable 
character  of  a  law. —  But  if  by  the  sale  of  arms  and  am- 
munition, their  existence  was  endangered,  they  had  the 
unquestionable  right  to  adopt  such  measures  as  should 
secure,  their  safety. 

The  act  of  Endicot  in  cutting  down  the  May-pole  was 
far  more  reprehensible  than  the  violence  of  Standish  in 
breaking  up  the  establishment,  and  taking  Morton  captive. 
The  May-pole  was  the  rallying  point  of  the  orgies  of  Merry 
Mount  it  is  true,  but  Endicot  had  no  more  right  to  inter- 
fere with  the  amusements  of  Morton,  than  Morton  had  to 
interrupt  the  prayers  or  the  worship  of  Endicot  and  his 
followers. 

On  the  third  of  November  1620  the  Great  Patent  of 
New  England  under  the  King's  hand  was  issued  to  the 
Council,  which  by  that  instrument  was  established  at  Ply- 
mouth in  the  County  of  Devon  to  enable  them  to  '  plant, 
rule,  and  govern,  New  England.'  Of  this  the  pilgrims 
at  the  time  they  subscribed  their  instrument  of  govern- 
ment in  Cape  Cod  harbor,  were  ignorant,  they  were  then 
without  the  limits  of  the  patent  which  had  been  obtained 
from  the  Virginia  company. 


158  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

A  patent  for  trade  was  subsequently  taken  out  by  John 
Peirce  as  has  been  before  related,  under  which,  he  contem- 
plated a  considerable  change  in  the  government. — That 
patent  was  purchased  by  the  IVIerchant  Adventurers. 

Before  the  year  1630  when  Allerton  obtained  the  en- 
larged patent  from  the  Council,  the  settlers  were  not  in 
law  a  body  politic.  The  legislative  and  judicial  powers 
which  they  exercised  were  derived  from  no  other  source 
than  common  consent. 

They  were  in  fact  a  trading  company  without  political 
power.  The  English  branch  of  their  company  regarded 
profit  only.  The  great  object  of  the  New  England  part 
of  the  company  was  the  maintenance  of  religious  freedom, 
and  to  this  object  commerce  was  subordinate.  Necessity 
however,  made  them  commercial,  and  when  the  interest  of 
the  London  partners  was  purchased,  the  colony  presents 
the  novel  and  interesting  spectacle  of  a  whole  community 
forming  one  great  partnership,  in  the  success  of  Which 
all  were  interested. 

The  lands  were  originally  cultivated  in  common,  and 
the  corn  was  raised  for  the  common  benefit ;  no  one  was 
possessed  of  an  exclusive  title. 

In  a  short  time  it  was  found  beneficial  to  grant  the  use 
of  the  homestead  and  gardens  in  severalty.  Afterwards 
the  separate  use  of  acre  lots  was  given  to  each  family,  but 
at  the  time  of  assigning  this  use  any  estate  of  inheritance 
or  in  fee  until  the  seven  years  to  which  the  partnership 
had  been  limited  should  have  expired,  was  denied.  After 
the  purchase,  the  use  of  twenty  acre  tillage  lots  to  each 
share  in  the  partnership,  (still  refusing  any  estate  of  in- 
heritance or  in  fee,)  was  assigned.  The  mowing  lands 
were  held  in  common,  and  the  use  was  not  assigned  in 
severalty,  except  by  the  season. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  159 

Thrown  together  in  a  remote  wilderness  with  no  power 
to  restrain,  and  no  laws  to  govern,  on  the  footing  of  the 
most  perfect  equality,  it  is  surprising  indeed,  that  this 
voluntary  government  should  have  endured  even  for  ten 
years. 

It  was  nothing  but  their  sober  habits  and  that  strong 
moral  sense  growing  out  of  a  pure  religious  feeling,  that 
kept  this  little  society  together. 

Upon  the  whole,  they  exhibit  a  spectacle  by  which  the 
most  civilized  and  best  regulated  nations  with  their  con- 
stitutions of  government,  and  their  codes  of  established 
laws  may  be  benefited  and  instructed. 

It  is  not  known  that  they  had  any  written  law  during 
this  period.  Their  right  to  the  soil  was  founded  on  occu- 
pation. They  found  it  desolate,  destitute  of  inhabitants, 
and  uncultivated,  and  they  occupied  it.  To  lands  in  a 
wilderness,  the  title  by  occupation  is  the  strongest.  In 
addition  to  this,  they  had  the  full  and  free  consent  of  the 
savage  chief  in  their  vicinity  for  its  occupation,  and  cul- 
tivation. They  interfered  with  no  native  right,  the  right 
to  fish  and  to  hunt  remained  as  free  to  the  natives  as  it  was 
before  their  arrival,  and  there  was  enough  for  both  Indians 
and  English,  each  might  have  said  to  the  other  a^  Abraham 
said  to  Lot,  '  Is  not  the  whole  land  before  us?' 

As  the  great  patent  of  New  England  is  the  foundation 
of  the  English  title  to  the  lands  comprised  within  its  lim- 
its, it  is  inserted  for  the  purpose  of  shewing  the  extent  of 
that  title. 


160  '  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 


THE  GREAT  PATENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

JAMES,  by  the  grace  of  God,  King  of  England,  Scotland,  France,  and  Ireland^ 
Defender  of  the  Faith,  &.c. 

To  all  to  whom  these  presents  shall  come,  greeting  :  — 
Whereas,  upon  the  humble  petition  of  divers  of  our  well 
disposed  subjects,  that  intended  to  make  several  planta- 
tions in  the  parts  of  America,  between  the  degrees  of 
thirtyfour  and  fortyfive,  We,  according  to  our  princely  in- 
clination, favoring  much  their  worthy  disposition,  in  hope 
thereby  to  advance  the  enlargement  of  the  christian  re- 
ligion, to  the  glory  of  God  Almighty,  as  also  by  that 
means  to  stretch  out  the  bounds  of  ourdominions,  and  to 
replenish  those  deserts  with  people,  governed  by  laws  and 
magistrates,  for  the  more  peaceable  commerce  of  all  that 
in  time  to  come  shall  have  occasion  to  traffic  into  those 
territories,  granted  unto  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  Sir  George 
Summers,  knights,  Thomas  Hamon,  and  Raleigh  Gilbert, 
Esquires,  and  others  their  associates,  for  the  more  speedy 
accomplishment  thereof,  by  our  letters  patent,  bearing 
date  the  10th  day  of  April,  in  the  fourth  year  of  our  reign 
of  England,  France,  and  Ireland,  and  of  Scotland  the 
fortieth,  free  liberty  to  divide  themselves  into  two  several 
colonies  :  the  one  called  the  first  colony,  to  be  underta- 
ken and  advanced  by  certain  knights,  gentlemen,  and 
merchants,  in  and  about  our  city  of  London  ;  the  other, 
called  the  second  colony,  to  be  undertaken  and  advanced 
by  certain  knights,  gentlemen,  merchants,  and  their  asso- 
ciates, in  or  about  our  cities  of  Bristol,  Exon,  and  our 
town  of  Plymouth,  and  other  places,  as  in  and  by  our  said 
letters  patents,  amongst  other  things  more  at  large,  it  doth 
and  may  appear. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  161 

And  whereas,  since  that  time,  upon  the  humble  petition 
of  the  said  adventurers  and  planters  of  the  said  first  colo- 
ny, we  have  been  graciously  pleased  to  make  them  one 
distinct  and  entire  body  by  themselves,  giving  unto  them 
their  distinct  limits  and  bounds  : 

And  have,  upon  their  like  humble  request,  granted  unto 
them  divers  liberties,  privileges,  enlargements,  and  immu- 
nities, as  in  and  by  our  several  letters  patents,  it  doth  and 
may  more  at  large  appear. 

Now  forasmuch  as  we  have  been,  in  like  manner,  hum- 
bly petitioned  unto  by  our  trusty  and  well  beloved  ser- 
vant, Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  knight,  captain  of  our  fort 
and  island,  by  Plymouth,  and  by  certain  the  principal 
knights  and  gentlemen  adventurers  of  the  said  second 
colony,  and  by  divers  other  persons  of  quality,  who  now 
intend  to  be  their  associates,  divers  of  which  have  been 
at  great  and  extraordinary  charges,  and  sustained  many 
losses,  in  seeking  and  discovering  a  place  fit  and  conve- 
nient to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  hopeful  plantation,  and 
have,  divers  years  past,  by  God's  assistance,  and  their  own 
endeavors,  taken  actual  possession  of  the  continent  here- 
after mentioned,  in  our  name,  and  to  our  use,  as  sovereign 
lord  thereof,  and  have  settled  already  some  of  our  people 
in  places  agreeable  to  their  desires  in  those  parts,  and  in 
confidence  of  prosperous  success  therein,  by  the  continu- 
ance of  God's  divine  blessing,  and  our  royal  permission, 
have  resolved,  in  a  more  plentiful  and  effectual  manner, 
to  prosecute  the  same  ;  and  to  that  purpose  and  intent, 
have  desired  of  us,  for  their  better  encouragement  and 
satisfaction  therein,  and  that  they  may  avoid  all  confusion, 
questions,  or  differences  between  themselves  and  those  of 
the  said  first  colony,  that  we  would  likewise  be  graciously 
pleased  to  make  certain  adventurers,  intending  to  erect 
and  establish  fishery,  trade,  and  plantation,  within  the 
21 


162  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

territories,  precincts,  and  limits  of  the  said  second  colony, 
and  their  successors,  one  several  distinct  and  entire  body, 
and  to  grant  unto  them  such  estate,  liberties,  privileges, 
enlargements,  and  immunities  there,  as  are  in  those,  our 
letters  patents,  hereafter  particularly  expressed  and  de- 
clared. 

And  forasmuch  as  we  have  been  certainly  given  to  un- 
derstand, by  divers  of  our  good  subjects,  that  have,  for 
these  many  years  past,  frequented  those  coasts  and  terri- 
tories between  the  degrees  of  forty  and  fortyeight,  that 
there  is  no  other  the  subjects  of  any  christian  king  or 
state,  by  any  authority  from  their  sovereign  lords  or  princes, 
actually  in  possession  of  any  of  the  said  lands  or  pre- 
cincts, whereby  any  right,  claim,  interest,  or  title,  may, 
might,  or  ought,  by  that  means  accrue,  belong,  or  apper- 
tain unto  them,  or  any  of  them. 

And  also,  for  that  we  have  been  further  given  certainly 
to  know,  that  within  these  late  years,  there  hath,  by  God's 
visitation,  reigned  a  wonderful  plague,  together  with  many 
horrible  slaughters  and  murders,  committed  amongst  the 
savages  and  British  people  there  heretofore  inhabiting,  in 
a  manner  to  the  utter  destruction,  devastation,  and  depo- 
pulation of  that  whole  territory,  so  as  there  is  not  left,  for 
many  leagues  together,  in  a  manner,  any  that  do  claim  or 
challenge  any  kind  of  interest  therein,  nor  any  other  su- 
perior lord  or  sovereign,  to  make  claim  thereunto,  where- 
by we,  in  our  judgment,  are  persuaded  and  satisfied,  that 
the  appointed  time  is  come  in  which  Almighty  God,  in  his 
great  goodness  and  bounty  towards  us,  and  our  people, 
hath  thought  fit  and  determined,  that  those  large  and 
goodly  territories,  deserted  as  it  were  by  their  natural  in- 
habitants, should  be  possessed  and  enjoyed  by  such  of  our 
subjects  and  people,  as  heretofore  have,  and  hereafter 
shall,  by  his  mercy  and    favor,  and  by  his   powerful  arm, 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  153 

be  directed  and  conducted  thither  ;  in  the  contemplation 
and  serious  consideration  whereof,  we  have  thought  it  fit, 
according  to  our  kingly  duty,  so  much  as  in  us  lieth,  to 
second  and  follow  God's  sacred  will,  rendering  reverend 
thanks  to  his  Divine  Majesty,  for  his  gracious  favor  in  lay- 
ing open  and  revealing  the  same  unto  us,  before  any  other 
christian  prince  or  state  ;  by  which  means,  without  of- 
fence, and,  as  we  trust,  to  his  glory,  we  may  with  bold- 
ness go  on  to  the  settling  of  so  hopeful  a  work,  which 
tendeth  to  the  reducing  and  conversion  of  such  savages 
as  remain  wandering  in  desolation  and  distress,  to  civil 
society  and  christian  religion,  to  the  enlargement  of  our 
own  dominions,  and  the  advancement  of  the  fortunes  of 
such  of  our  good  subjects  as  shall  willingly  interest  them- 
selves in  the  said  employment,  to  whom  we  cannot  but 
give  singular  commendations  for  their  so  worthy  intention 
and  enterprise. 

We,  therefore,  of  our  special  grace,  mere  motion,  and 
certain  knowledge,  by  the  advice  of  the  lords  and  others 
of  our  privy  council,  have,  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  succes- 
sors, granted,  ordained,  and  established,  and,  in  and  by 
these  presents,  do,  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  grant, 
ordain,  and  establish,  that  all  that  circuit,  continent,  pre- 
cincts, and  limits,  in  America,  lying  and  being  in  breadth 
from  forty  degrees  of  northerly  latitude  from  the  equi- 
noctial line,  to  fortyeight  degrees  of  the  said  northerly 
latitude,  and  in  length  by  all  the  breadth  aforesaid, 
throughout  the  main  land,  from  sea  to  sea,  with  all  the 
seas,  rivers,  islands,  creeks,  inlets,  ports,  and  havens, 
within  the  degrees,  precincts,  and  limits  of  the  said  latitude 
and  longitude,  shall  be  the  limits,  and  bounds,  and  pre- 
cincts of  the  said  second  colony. 

And  to  the  end  that  the  said  territories  may  forever 
hereafter  be  more  particularly  and  certainly  known  and 
distinguished,  our  will  and  pleasure  is,  that  the  same  shall. 


164  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

from  henceforth,  be  nominated,  termed,  and  called  by  the 
name  of  New  England,  in  America,  and  by  that  name 
of  New  England,  in  America,  the  said  circuit,  pre- 
cinct, limit,  continent,  islands,  and  places  in  America 
aforesaid,  we  do,  by  these  presents,  for  us,  our  heirs,  and 
successors,  name,  call,  erect,  found,  and  establish,  and  by 
that  name  to  have  continuance  forever. 

And  for  the  better  plantation,  ruling,  and  governing  of 
the  aforesaid  New  England,  in  America,  we  will,  ordain, 
constitute,  assign,  limit,  and  appoint,  and  for  us,  our 
heirs,  and  successors,  we,  by  the  advice  of  the  lords,  and 
others  of  the  said  privy  council,  do,  by  these  presents,  or- 
dain, constitute,  limit,  and  appoint,  that  from  henceforth 
there  shall  be  forever  hereafter,  in  our  town  of  Plymouth, 
in  the  county  of  Devon,  one  body  politic  and  corporate, 
which  shall  have  perpetual  succession  ;  which  shall  consist 
of  the  number  of  forty  persons,  and  no  more;  which  shall 
be,  and  shall  be  called  and  known  by  the  name  of  the  coun- 
cil established  at  Plymouth,  in  the  county  of  Devon,  for 
the  planting,  ruling,  ordering,  and  governing  of  New  Eng- 
land, in  America,  and  for  that  purpose,  we  have,  at  and  by 
the  nomination  and  request  of  the  said  petitioners,  granted, 
ordained,  established,  and  confirmed,  and,  by  these  presents, 
for  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  do  grant,  ordain,  estab- 
lish, and  confirm  our  right  trusty  and  right  well  beloved 
cousins  and  counsellors,  Lodowick,  duke  of  Lenox,  lord 
steward  of  our  household  ;  George,  lord  marquis  Buck- 
ingham, our  high  admiral  of  England  ;  James,  marquis 
Hamilton  ;  William,  earl  of  Pembroke,  lord  chamberlain 
of  our  household ;  Thomas,  earl  of  Arundel  ;  and  our 
right  trusty  and  right  well  beloved  cousin,  William,  earl 
of  Bath  ;  and  our  right  trusty  and  right  well  beloved 
cousin  and  counsellor,  Henry,  earl  of  Southampton ;  and 
our  right  trusty  and  right  well  beloved  cousins,  William, 
earl  of  Salisbury,  and  Robert,  earl  of  Warwick  ;  and  our 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  1^5 

right  trusty  and  right  well  beloved  John,  viscount  Had- 
dington ;  and  our  right  trusty  and  well  beloved  counsel- 
lor, Edward,  Lord  Zouch,  lord  warden  of  our  cinque  ports  ; 
and  our  trusty  and  well  beloved  Edmond,  lord  Sheffield, 
Edward,  lord  Gorges  ;  and  our  well  beloved  Sir  Edward 
Seymor,  knight  and  baronet;  Sir  Robert  Manse  1  ;  Sir 
Edward  Zouch,  our  knight  marshal  ;  Sir  Dudley  Diggs, 
Sir  Thomas  Roe,  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  Sir  Francis 
Popham,  Sir  John  Brooks,  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  Sir  Richard 
Hawkins,  Sir  Richard  Edgecomb,  Sir  Allen  Apsley,  Sir 
Warwick  Heale,  Sir  Richard  Catchmay,  Sir  John  Bourg- 
chier.  Sir  Nathaniel  Rich,  Sir  Edward  Giles,  Sir  Giles 
Mompesson,  Sir  Thomas  Worth,  knights  ;  and  our  well 
beloved  Matthew  Sutcliff,  dean  of  Exeter  ;  Robert  Heath, 
Esq.  recorder  of  our  city  of  London  ;  Henry  Bourgchier, 
John  Drake,  Raleigh  Gilbert,  George  Chudley,  Thomas 
Hamon,  and  John  Argall,  Esquires,  to  be,  and  in  and  by 
these  presents,  we  do  appoint  them  to  be,  the  first  modern 
and  present  council,  established  at  Plymouth,  in  the  county 
of  Devon,  for  the  planting,  ruling,  ordering,  and  govern- 
ing of  New  England,  in  America  ;  and  that  they,  and  the 
survivors  of  them,  and  such  as  the  survivors  and  survivor 
of  them  shall,  from  time  to  time,  elect  and  choose  to  make 
up  the  aforesaid  number  of  forty  persons,  when  and  as  often 
as  any  of  them,  or  any  of  their  successors,  shall  happen 
to  decease,  or  to  be  removed  from  being  of  the  said  coun- 
cil, shall  be,  in  and  by  these  presents,  incorporated,  to 
have  a.  perpetual  succession  forever,  in  deed,  fact,  and 
name,  and  shall  be  one  body  corporate  and  politic  ;  and 
that  those,  and  such  said  persons,  and  their  successors, 
and  such  as  shall  be  elected  and  chosen  to  succeed  them, 
as  aforesaid,  shall  be,  and,  by  these  presents,  are  and  be 
incorporated,  named,  and  called  by  the  name  of  the  coun- 
cil established  at  Plymouth,  in  the  county  of  Devon,  for 
the  planting,  ruling,  and  governing  of  New  England,  in 


166  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

America;  and  them,  the  said  duke  of  Lenox,  marquis 
Buckingham,  marquis  Hamilton,  earl  of  Pembroke,  earl  of 
Arundel,  earl  of  Bath,  earl  of  Southampton,  earl  of  Salis- 
bury, earl  of  Warwick,  viscount  Haddington,  lord  Zouch, 
lord  Sheffield,  lord  Gorges,  Sir  Edward  Seymor,  Sir  Rob- 
ert Mansel,  Sir  Edward  Zouch,  Sir  Dudley  Diggs,  Sir 
Thomas  Roe,  Sir  Ferdinand©  Gorges,  Sir  Francis  Pop- 
ham,  Sir  John  Brooks,  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  Sir  Richard 
Hawkins,  Sir  Richard  Edgecomb,  Sir  Allen  Apsley,  Sir 
Warwick  Heale,  Sir  Richard  Catchmay,  Sir  John  Bourg- 
chier.  Sir  Nathaniel  Rich,  Sir  Edward  Giles,  Sir  Giles 
Mompesson,  Sir  Thomas  Worth,  knights  ;  Matthew  Sut- 
clifT,  Robert  Heath,  Henry  Bourgchier,  John  Drake, 
Raleigh  Gilbert,  George  Chudley,  Thomas  Hamon,  and 
John  Argall,  Esquires,  and  their  successors,  one  body 
corporate  and  politic,  in  deed  and  in  name,  by  the  name 
of  the  council  established  at  Plymouth,  in  the  county  of 
Devon,  for  the  planting,  ruling,  and  governing  of  New 
England,  in  America. 

We  do,  by  these  presents,  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  succes- 
sors, really  and  fully  incorporate,  erect,  ordain,  name, 
constitute,  and  establish,  and  that,  by  the  same  name  of 
the  said  council,  they,  and  their  successors,  forever  here- 
after be  incorporated,  named,  and  called,  and  shall,  by 
the  same  name,  have  perpetual  succession. 

And  further,  we  do  hereby,  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  suc- 
cessors, grant  unto  the  said  council  established  at  Ply- 
mouth, that  they,  and  their  successors,  by  the  sanie  name, 
be,  and  shall  be,  and  shall  continue  persons  able  and  ca- 
pable in  the  law,  from  time  to  time,  and  shall,  by  that 
name  of  council  aforesaid,  have  full  power  and  authority, 
and  lawful  capacity  and  ability,  as  well  to  purchase,  take, 
hold,  receive,  enjoy,  and  to  have  to  them  and  their  suc- 
cessors,  forever,    any    manors,    lands,    tenements,    rentSi 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  167 

royalties,  privileges,  immunities,  reversions,  annuities, 
hereditaments,  goods,  and  chattels  whatsoever,  of,  or  from 
us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  and  of,  or  from  any  other 
person  or  persons  whatsoever,  as  well  in  and  within  this 
our  realm  of  England,  as  in  and  within  any  other  place  or 
places  whatsover  or  wheresoever  ;  and  the  same  manors, 
lands,  tenements,  and  hereditaments,  goods,  or  chattels, 
or  any  of  them,  by  the  same  name,  to  alien  and  sell,  or  to 
do,  execute,  or  ordain  and  perform  all  other  matters  and 
things  whatsoever,  to  the  said  incorporation  and  plantation 
concerning  and  belonging. 

And  further,  our  will  and  pleasure  is,  that  the  said  coun- 
cil, for  the  time  being,  and  their  successors,  shall  have 
full  power  and  lawful  authority,  by  the  name  aforesaid,  to 
sue  and  to  be  sued,  implead  and  to  be  impleaded,  answer 
and  to  be  answered  unto,  in  all  manner  of  courts  and 
places  that  now  are,  or  hereafter  shall  be,  within  this  our 
realm,  and  elsewhere,  as  well  temporal  as  spiritual,  in  all 
manner  of  suits  and  matters  whatsover,  and  of  what  na- 
ture or  kind  soever  such  suits  or  actions  be  or  shall  be. 

And  our  will  and  pleasure  is,  that  the  said  forty  per- 
sons, or  the  greater  number  of  them,  shall,  and  may,  from 
time  to  time,  and  at  any  time  hereafter,  at  their  own  will 
and  pleasure,  according  to  the  laws,  ordinances,  and  or- 
ders of,  or  by  them,  or  by  the  greater  part  of  them  here- 
after, in  manner  and  form  in  these  presents  mentioned  to 
be  agreed  upon,  to  elect  and  choose,  amongst  themselves, 
one  of  the  said  forty  persons,  for  the  time  being,  to  be 
president  of  the  said  council,  which  president,  so  elected 
an'd  chosen,  we  will  shall  coniinue  and  be  president  of 
the  said  council,  for  so  long  time  as  by  the  orders  of  the 
said  council,  from  time  to  time  to  be  made,  as  hereafter 
is  mentioned,  shall  be  thought  fit,  and  no  longer  ;  unto 
which  president,  or,  in  his  absence,  to  any  such  person  as, 


158  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

by  the  orders  of  the  said  council,  shall  be  thereunto  ap- 
pointed, we  do  give  authority  to  give  order  for  the  warn- 
ing of  the  said  council,  and  sunmmoning  the  company  to 
their  meetings. 

And  our  will  and  pleasure  is,  that,  from  time  to  time, 
when,  and  so  often  as  any  of  the  said  council  shall  hap- 
pen to  decease,  or  to  be  removed  from  being  of  the  said 
council,  that  then,  and  so  often,  the  survivors  of  them  of 
the  said  council,  and  no  other,  or  the  greater  number  of 
them,  who  then  shall  be,  from  time  to  time,  left  and  re- 
maining, and  who  shall,  or  the  greater  number  of  which 
that  shall  be  assembled  at  a  public  court,  or  meeting,  to 
be  held  for  the  said  company,  shall  elect  and  choose  one 
or  more  other  person  or  persons,  to  be  of  the  said  coun- 
cil, and  which,  from  time  to  time,  shall  be  of  the  said 
council,  so  that  the  number  of  forty  persons  of  the  said 
council  may,  from  time  to  time,  be  supplied. 

Provided  always,  that  as  well  the  persons  herein  named 
to  be  of  the  said  council,  as  every  other  counsellor  here- 
after to  be  elected,  shall  be  presented  to  the  lord  chan- 
cellor of  England,  or  to  the  lord  high  treasurer  of  Eng- 
land, or  to  the  lord  chamberlain  of  the  household,  of  us, 
our  heirs,  and  successors,  for  the  time  being,  to  take  his 
and  their  oath  and  oaths,  of  a  counsellor  and  counsellors, 
to  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  for  the  said  company  and 
colony  in  New  England. 

And  further,  we  will  and  grant,  by  these  presents,  for 
us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  unto  the  said  council,  and 
their  successors,  that  they,  and  their  successors,  shall 
have  and  enjoy  forever,  a  common  seal,  to  be  engraven 
according  to  their  discretions. 

And  that  it  shall  be  lawful  for  them  to  appoint  what 
other  seal,  or  seals,  they  shall  think  most  meet  and  neces- 
sary, either  for  their  use,  as  they  are  one  united  body,  in- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  169 

corporate  here,  or  for  the  public  use  of  their  government 
and  ministers  in  New  England  aforesaid,  whereby  the  said 
incorporation  may  or  shall  seal  any  manner  of  instru- 
ment, touching  the  same  corporation,  and  the  manors, 
lands,  tenements,  rents,  reversions,  annuities,  heredita- 
ments, goods,  chattels,  affairs,  and  any  other  things,  be- 
longing unto,  or  in  any  wise  appertaining,  touching  or 
concerning  the  said  council,  and  their  successors,  or  con- 
cerning the  said  corporation  and  plantation,  in  and  by 
these  our  letters  patents,  as  aforesaid,  founded,  erected, 
and  established. 

And  we  do  further,  by  these  presents,  for  us,  our  heirs, 
and  successors,  grant  unto  the  said  council,  and  their  suc- 
cessors, that  it  shall  and  may  be  lawful  to  and  for  the  said 
council,  and  their  successors,  for  the  time  being,  in  their 
discretions,  from  time  to  time,  to  admit  such  and  so  many 
person  and  persons  to  be  made  free,  and  enabled  to  trade 
and  traffic  unto,  within,  and  in  New  England,  aforesaid, 
and  unto  every  i  part  and  parcel  thereof,  or  to  have,  pos- 
sess, and  enjoy  any  lands  or  hereditaments  in  New  Eng- 
land, aforesaid,  as  they  shall  think  fit,  according  to  the 
laws,  orders,  constitutions,  and  ordinances,  by  the  said 
council,  and  their  successors,  from  time  to  time,  to  be 
made  and  established,  by  virtue  of,  and  according  to  the 
true  intent  of  these  presents,  and  under  such  conditions, 
reservations,  and  agreements,  as  the  said  council  shall  set 
down,  order,  and  direct,  and  not  otherwise. 

And  further,  of  our  especial  grace,  certain  knowledge, 
and  mere  motion,  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  we  do, 
by  these  presents,  give  and  grant  full  power  and  author- 
ity to  the  said  council,  and  their  successors,  that  the  said 
council,  for  the  time  being,  or  the  greater  part  of  them, 
shall  and  may,  from  time  to  time,  nominate,  make,  con- 
stitute, ordain,  and  confirm,  by  such  name  or  names,  style 
22 


170  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

or  styles,  as  to  them  shall  seem  good,  and,  likewise,  to 
revoke  and  discharge,  change  and  alter,  as  well  all  and 
singular,  governors,  officers,  and  ministers,  which  hereafter 
shall  be  by  them  thought  fit  and  needful  to  be  made  or 
used,  as  well  to  attend  the  business  of  the  said  company 
here,  as  for  the  government  of  the  said  colony  and  plan- 
tation. 

And  also,  to  make,  ordain,  and  establish  all  manner  of 
orders,  laws,  directions,  instructions,  forms,  and  ceremo- 
nies of  government  and  magistracy,  fit  and  necessary  for 
and  concerning  the  government  of  the  said  colony  and 
plantation,  so  always  as  the  same  be  not  contrary  to  the 
laws  and  statutes  of  this  our  realm  of  England,  and  the 
same  at  all  times  hereafter,  to  abrogate,  revoke,  or  change, 
not  only  within  the  precincts  of  the  said  colony,  but  also 
upon  the  seas,  in  going  and  coming  to  and  from  the  said 
colony,  as  they,  in  their  good  discretion,  shall  think  to  be 
fittest  for  the  good  of  the  adventurers  and  inhabitants 
there.  i 

And  we  do  further,  of  our  special  grace,  certain  know- 
ledge, and  mere  motion,  grant,  declare,  and  ordain,  that 
such  principal  governor  as,  from  time  to  time,  shall  be 
authorized  and  appointed,  in  manner  and  form  in  these 
presents  heretofore  expressed,  sh^ll  have  full  power  and 
authority  to  use  and  exercise  martial  laws,  in  cases  of  re- 
bellion, insurrection,  and  mutiny,  in  as  large  and  ample 
manner,  as  our  lieutenants  in  our  counties  within  our 
realm  of  England,  have,  or  ought  to  have,  by  force  of 
their  commission  of  lieutenancy. 

And  forasmuch  as  it  shall  be  necessary  for  all  such  our 
loving  subjects  as  shall  inhabit  within  the  said  precincts  of 
New  England  aforesaid,  to  determine  to  live  together,  in 
the  fear  and  true  worship  of  Almighty  God,  christian 
peace,  and  civil  quietness,  each  with  the  other,  whereby 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  171 

every  one  may,  with  more  safety,  pleasure,  and  profit, 
enjoy  that,  whereunto  they  shall  attain  with  great  pain 
and  peril. 

We,  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  are  likewise  pleas- 
ed and  contented,  and,  by  these  presents,  do  give  and 
grant  unto  the  said  council,  and  their  successors,  and  to 
such  governors,  officers,  and  ministers,  as  shall  be,  by  the 
said  council,  constituted  and  appointed  according  to  the 
natures  and  limits  of  their  offices  and  places  respectively, 
that  they  shall  and  may,  from  time  to  time,  forever  here- 
after, within  the  said  precincts  of  New  England,  or  in  the 
way  by  the  seas  thither  and  from  thence,  have  full  and  abso- 
lute power  and  authority  to  correct,  punish,  pardon,  gov- 
ern, and  rule  all  such  the  subjects  of  us,  our  heirs,  and 
successors,  as  shall,  from  time  to  time,  adventure  them- 
selves in  any  voyage  thither,  or  that  shall,  at  any  time 
hereafter,  inhabit  in  the  precincts  and  territories  of  the 
said  colony  as  aforesaid,  according  to  such  laws,  orders, 
ordinances,  directions,  and  instructions,  as  by  the  said 
council  aforesaid,  shall  be  established ;  and,  in  defect 
thereof,  in  cases  of  necessity,  according  to  the  good  dis- 
cretions of  the  said  governors  and  officers  respectively,  as 
well  in  cases  capital  and  criminal  as  civil,  both  marine 
and  others  ;  so  always  as  the  said  statutes,  ordinances, 
and  proceedings,  as  near  as  conveniently  may  be  agreea- 
ble to  the  laws,  statutes,  government,  and  policy  of  this 
our  realm  of  England. 

And  furthermore,  if  any  person,  or  persons,  adventu- 
rers, or  planters,  of  the  said  colony,  or  any  other,  at  any 
time  or  times  hereafter,  shall  transport  any  monies,  goods, 
or  merchandizes,  out  of  any  our  kingdoms,  with  a  pre- 
tence and  purpose  to  land,  set,  or  otherwise  to  dispose  the 
same,  within  the  limits  and  bounds  of  the  said  colony,  and 
yet,  nevertheless,  being  at  sea,  or  after  he  hath  landed 


172  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

within  any  part  of  the  said  colony,  shall  carry  the  same 
into  any  other  foreign  country,  with  a  purpose  there  to 
set  and  dispose  thereof,  that  then  all  the  goods  a  d  chat- 
tels of  the  said  person,  or  persons,  so  offending,  and 
transported,  together  with  the  ship  or  vessel  wherein  such 
transportation  was  made,  shall  be  forfeited  to  us,  our 
heirs,  and  successors. 

And  we  do  further,  of  our  special  grace,  certain  know- 
ledge, and  mere  motion,  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors, 
for,  and  in  respect  of  the  considerations  aforesaid,  and 
for  divers  other  good  causes  and  considerations,  us  there- 
unto especially  moving,  and  by  the  advice  of  the  lords 
and  others  of  our  said  privy  council,  have  absolutely 
given,  granted,  and  confirmed,  and,  by  these  presents,  do 
absolutely  give,  grant,  and  confirm,  unto  the  said  council, 
called  the  council  established  at  Plymouth,  in  the  county 
of  Devon,  for  the  planting,  ruling,  and  governing  of  New 
England,  in  America,  and  unto  their  successors,  forever, 
all  the  aforesaid  lands  and  grounds,  continent,  precincts, 
place,  places,  and  territories,  (viz.)  the  aforesaid  part  of 
America,  lying  and  being  in  breadth  from  forty  degrees  of 
northerly  latitude  from  the  equinoctial  line,  to  forty- 
eight  degrees  of  the  said  northerly  latitude  inclusively, 
and  in  length  of,  and  within  all  the  breadth  aforesaid, 
throughout  the  main  land,  from  sea  to  sea,  together 
also  with  all  the  firm  land,  soils,  grounds,  havens,  ports, 
rivers,  waters,  fishings,  mines,  and  minerals,  as  well 
royal  mines  of  gold  and  silver,  as  other  mines  and  min- 
erals, precious  stones,  quarries,  and  all  and  singular 
other  commodities,  jurisdictions,  royalties,  privileges, 
franchises,  and  pre-eminences,  both  within  the  said  tract 
of  land,  upon,  the  main,  and  ako  within  the  said  island 
and  seas  adjoining. 

Provided  always,  that  the   said   islands,   or  any  of  the 
premises  herein  before  mentioned,  and,  by  these  presents, 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  173 

intended  and  meant  to  be  granted,  be  not  actually  pos- 
sessed, or  inhabited  by  any  other  christian  prince  or  state, 
nor  be  within  the  bounds,  limits,  or  territories  of  that 
southern  colony,  heretofore,  by  us,  granted  to  be  planted 
by  divers  of  our  loving  subjects  in  the  south  parts. 

To  have  and  to  hold,  possess,  and  enjoy  all  and  singu- 
lar the  aforesaid  continent,  lands,  territories,  islands,  he- 
reditaments, and  precincts,  sea  waters,  fishings,  with  all 
and  all  manner  their  commodities,  royalties,  liberties,  pre- 
eminences, and  profits,  that  shall  arise  from  thence,  with 
all  and  singular  their  appurtenances,  and  every  part  and 
parcel  thereof,  and  of  them  to,  and  unto  the  said  coun- 
cil, and  their  successors,  and  assigns,  forever,  to  the  sole, 
only  and  proper  use,  benefit,  and  behoof  of  them,  the 
said  council,  and  their  successors,  and  assigns,  forever,  to 
be  holden  of  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  as  of  our  ma- 
nor of  East  Greenwich,  in  our  county  of  Kent,  in  free 
and  common  socage,  and  not  in  capite,  nor  by  knights' 
services. 

Yielding  and  paying,  therefore,  to  us,  our  heirs,  and 
successors,  the  fifth  part  of  the  ores  of  gold  and  silver 
which,  from  time  to  time,  and  at  all  times  hereafter,  shall 
happen  to  be  found,  gotten  and  obtained  in,  at,  or  within 
any  the  said  lands,  limits,  territories,  and  precincts,  or  in, 
or  within  any  part,  or  parcels  thereof,  for,  or  in  respect  of 
all  and  all  manner  of  duties,  demands,  and  services  v^hat- 
soever,  to  be  done,  made,  or  paid  to  us,  our  heirs,  and 
successors. 

And  we  do  further,  of  our  especial  grace,  certain  knov.- 
ledge,  and  mere  motion,  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors, 
give  and  grant  to  the  said  council,  and  their  successors, 
forever,  by  these  presents,  that  it  shall  be  lawful  and  free 
for  them,  and  their  assigns,  at  all  and  every  time  and 
times  hereafter,  out  of  any  our  realms  or  dominions  what- 


]  74  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

sover,  to  take,  lead,  carry,  and  transport,  in  and  into  their 
voyages,  and  for  and  towards  the  said  plantation  in  New 
England,  all  such  and  so  many  of  our  loving  subjects,  or 
any  other  strangers  that  will  become  our  loving  subjects, 
and  live  under  our  allegiance,  or  shall  willingly  accom- 
pany them  in  the  said  voyages  and  plantation,  with 
shipping,  armor,  weapons,  ordnances,  munition  pow- 
der, shot,  victuals,  and  all  manner  of  clothing,  imple- 
ments, furniture,  beasts,  cattle,  horses,  mares,  and  all  other 
things  necessary  for  the  said  plantation,  and  for  their  use 
and  defence,  and  for  trade  with  the  people  there,  and  in 
passing  and  returning  to  and  fro,  without  paying  or  yield- 
ing any  custom  or  subsidy,  either  inwards  or  outwards,  to 
us,  our  heirs,  or  successors,  for  the  same,  for  the  space  of 
seven  years  from  the  day  of  the  date  of  these  presents. 

Provided,  that  none  of  the  said  persons  be  such  as  shall 
be  hereafter,  by  special  name,  restrained  by  us,  our  heirs, 
or  successors. 

And,  for  their  further  encouragement,  of  our  special 
grace  and  favor,  we  do,  by  these  presents,  for  us,  our  heirs, 
and  successors,  yield  and  grant  to,  and  with  the  said  coun- 
cil, and  their  successors,  and  every  of  them,  their  factors 
and  assigns,  that  they,  and  every  of  them,  shall  be  free 
and  quiet  from  all  subsidies  and  customs,  in  New  Eng- 
land for  the  space  of  seven  years,  and  from  all  taxes  and 
impositions  for  the  space  of  twenty  and  one  years,  upon 
all  o-oods  or  merchandize,  at  any  time  or  times  hereafter, 
either  upon  importation  thither,  or  exportation  from  thence, 
into  our  realm  of  England,  or  into  any  other  our  dominions, 
by  the  said  council,  and  their  successors,  their  deputies, 
factors,  and  assigns,  or  any  of  them,  except  only  the  five 
pounds  per  cent,  due  for  custom  upon  all  such  goods  and 
merchandizes  as  shall  be  brought  or  imported  into  our 
realm  of  England,  or  any  other  of  our  dominions,  accord- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  175 

ing  to  the  ancient  trade  of  merchants  ;  which  five  pounds 
per  centum  only  being  paid,  it  shall  be  thenceforth  law- 
ful and  free  for  the  said  adventurers,  the  same  goods  and 
merchandize,  to  export  and  carry  out  of  our  said  domin- 
ions into  foreign  parts,  without  any  custom,  tax,  or  other 
duty,  to  be  paid  to  us,  our  heirs,  or  successors,  or  to  any 
other  officers  or  ministers  of  us,  our  heirs  and  successors. 
Provided,  that  the  said  goods  and  merchandizes  be  ship- 
ped out  within  , thirteen  months  after  their  first  landing, 
within  any  part  of  those  dominions. 

And  further,  our  will  and  pleasure  is,  and  we  do,  by 
these  presents,  charge,  command,  warrant,  and  authorize 
the  said  council,  and  their  successors,  or  the  major  part 
of  them,  which  shall  be  present  and  assembled  for  that 
purpose,  shall,  from  time  to  time,  under  their  common 
seal,  distribute,  convey,  assign,  and  set  over  such  particu- 
lar portions  of  lands,  tenements,  and  hereditaments,  as 
are,  by  these  presents,  formerly  granted  unto  each  our 
loving  subjects,  naturally  born,  or  denizens,  or  others,  as 
well  adventurers  as  planters,  as,  by  the  said  company, 
upon  a  commission  of  survey  arid  distribution,  executed 
and  returned  for  that  purpose,  shall  be  named,  appointed, 
and  allowed,  wherein  our  will  and  pleasure  is,  that  res- 
pect be  had,  as  well  to  the  proportion  of  the  adventurers, 
as  to  the  special  service,  hazard,  exploit,  or  merit,  of  any 
person  so  to  be  recompensed,  advanced,  or  rewarded. 
-  And  we  do  also,  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  grant 
to  the  said  council,  and  their  successors,  and  to  all  and 
every  such  governors,  or  other  officers,  or  ministers,  as, 
by  the  said  council,  shall  be  appointed,  to  have  power  and 
authority  of  government  and  command,  in  or  over  the 
said  colony  and  plantation,  that  they,  and  every  of  them, 
shall,  and  lawfully  may,  from  time  to  time,  and  at  all 
times    hereafter,   forever,   for   their    several   defence   and 


176  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COl6nY. 

safety,  encounter,  expulse,  repel,  and  resist,  by  force  of 
arms,  as  well  by  sea  as  by  land,  and  all  ways  and  means 
whatsoever,  all  such  person  and  persons  as,  without  the 
special  license  of  the  said  council,  and  their  successors, 
or  the  greater  part  of  them,  shall  attempt  to  inhabit  with- 
in the  said  several  precincts  and  limits  of  the  said  colony 
and  plantation. 

And  also,  all  and  every  such  person  and  persons  what- 
soever, as  shall  enterprise  or  attempt,  at  any  time  hereaf- 
ter, destruction,  invasion,  detriment,  or  annoyance  to  the 
said  colony  and  plantation. 

And  that  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  said  council,  and 
their  successors,  and  every  of  them,  from  time  to  time, 
and  at  all  times  hereafter,  and  they  shall  have  full  power 
and  authority  to  take  and  surprise,  by  all  ways  and  means 
whatsoever,  all  and  every  such  person  or  persons  whatso- 
ever, with  their  ships,  goods,  and  other  furniture,  traffick- 
ing in  any  harbor,  creek,  or  place,  within  the  limits  and 
precincts  of  the  said  colony  and  plantation,  and  not  being 
allowed  by  the  said  council  to  be  adventurers  or  planters 
of  the  said  colony. 

And  of  our  further  royal  favor,  we  have  granted,  and 
for  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  we  do  grant  unto  the 
said  council,  and  their  successors,  that  the  said  territo- 
ries, lands,  rivers,  and  places  aforesaid,  or  any  of  them, 
shall  not  be  visited,  frequented,  or  traded  unto  by  any 
other  of  our  subjects,  or  tlie  subjects  of  us,  our  heirs,  or 
successors,  either  from  any  of  the  ports  and  havens,  be- 
longing, or  appertaining,  or  which  shall  belong  or  apper- 
tain unto  us,  our  heirs,  or  successors,  or  to  any  foreign 
prince,  state,  or  potentate  whatsoever. 

And  therefore,  we  do  hereby,  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  suc- 
cessors, charge,  command,  prohibit,  and  forbid  all  the 
subjects  of  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  of  what  degree 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  177 

or  quality  soever  they  be,  that  none  of  them,  directly  or 
indirectly  presume  to  visit,  frequent,  trade,  or  adventure 
to  traffic  into,  or  from  the  said  territories,  lands,  rivers, 
and  places  aforesaid,  or  any  of  them,  other  than  the  said 
council,  and  their  successors,  factors,  deputies,  and  as- 
signs, unless  it  be  with  the  license  and  consent  of  the 
said  council  and  company,  first  had  and  obtained  in  wri- 
ting, under  their  common  seal,  upon  pain  of  our  indigna- 
tion, and  imprisonment  of  their  bodies,  during  the  plea- 
sure of  us,  our  heirs,  or  successors,  and  the  forfeiture  and 
loss,  both  of  their  ship  and  goods,  wheresoever  they  shall 
be  found,  either  within  any  of  our  kingdoms  or  dominions, 
or  any  the  place  or  places  out  of  our  dominions,  and  for 
the  better  effecting  of  our  said  pleasure  herein,  we  do 
hereby,  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  give  and  grant 
full  power  and  authority  unto  the  said  council,  and  their 
successors,  for  the  time  being,  that  they,  by  themselves, 
their  factors,  deputies,  or  assigns,  shall  and  may,  from 
time  to  time,  and  at  all  times  hereafter,  attach,  arrest, 
take,  and  seize  all  and  all  manner  of  ship  and  ships,  goods, 
wares,  and  merchandizes  whatsoever,  which  shall  be 
brought  from,  or  carried  to  the  places  before  mentioned, 
or  any  of  them,  contrary  to  our  will  and  pleasure,  before 
jn  these  presents  expressed,  the  moiety,  or  one  half  of  all 
which  forfeitures,  we  do  hereby,  for  us,  bur  heirs,  and  suc- 
cessbrs,  give  and  grant  unto  the  said  council,  and  their 
successors,  to  their  own  proper  use,  without  accompt,  and 
the  other  moiety,  or  half  part  thereof,  we  will  shall  be 
and  remain  to  the  use  of  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors. 

And  we,  likewise,  have  condescended  and  granted,  and, 
by  these  presents,  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  do 
condescend,  and  grant  to,  and  with  the  said  council,  and 
their  successors,  that  we,  our  heirs,  or  successors,  shall 
not,  or  will  not,  give  and  grant  any  liberty,  license,  or 
23 


178  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

authority  to  any  person  or  persons  whatsoever,  to  sail, 
trade,  or  traffic  unto  the  aforesaid  phmtations  of  New 
England,  without  the  good  will  and  liking  of  the  said 
council,  or  the  greater  part  of  iliem,  for  the  time  being, 
at  any  their  courts  to  be  assembled. 

And  we  do,  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  give  and 
grant  unto  the  said  council,  ami  their  successors,  that 
whensoever,  or  so  often  as  arjy  custom  or  subtidy  shall 
grow  due  or  payable,  unto  us,  our  heirs,  or  successors, 
according  to  the  limitation  and  appointment  aforesaid, 
by  reason  of  any  goods,  wares,  or  merchandize,  to  be 
shipped  out,  or  any  return  to  be  made,  of  any  goods, 
wares,  or  merchandize,  unto,  or  from  New  England, 
or  any  the  lands  or  territories  aforesaid,  that  then,  so 
often,  and  in  such  case,  the  farmers,  customers,  and 
officers  of  our  customs  of  England  and  Ireland,  and 
every  of  them,  for  the  time  being,  upon  request  made  un- 
to them  by  the  said  council,  their  successors,  factors,  or 
assigns,  and  upon  convenient  security  to  be  given  in  that 
behalf,  shall  give  and  allow  unto  the  said  council,  and 
their  successors,  and  to  all  person  and  persons  free  of 
the  said  company  as  aforesaid,  six  months  time,  for  the 
payment  of  the  one  half  of  all  such  customs  and  subsidy, 
as  shall  be  due  and  payable  unto  us,  our  heirs,  and  succes- 
sors, for  the  same  ;  for  which  these,  our  letters  patents,  or 
the  duplicate,  or  the  enrolment  thereof,  shall  be,  unto  our 
said  officers,  a  sufficient  warrant  and  discharge. 

Nevertheless,  our  will  and  pleasure  is,  that,  if  any  of 
the  said  goods,  wares,  and  merchandizes,  which  be,  or 
shall  be,  at  any  time  hereafter,  landed  and  exported  out 
of  any  our  realms  aforesaid,  and  shall  be  shipped  with  a 
purpose  not  to  be  carried  to  New  England  aforesaid,  that 
then  such  payment,  duty,  custom,  imposition,  or  forfeiture, 
shall  be  paid  and  belong  to  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors, 
for  the  said  goods,   wares,  and  merchandizes,  so  fraudu- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  179 

lently  sought  to  be  transported,  as  if  this  our  grant  had 
not  been  made  nor  granted. 

And  we  do,  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  give  and 
grant  unto  the  said  council,  and  their  successors,  forever, 
by  these  presents,  that  the  said  president  of  the  said  coin- 
pnny,  or  his  deputy,  for  the  time  being,  or  any  two  others 
of  the  said  council,  for  the  said  colony  in  New  England, 
for  the  time  being,  shall  and  may,  at  all  times  hereafter, 
and  from  time  to  time,  have  full  power  and  authority  to 
minister,  and  give  the  oath  and  oaths  of  allegiance  and 
supremacy,  or  either  of  them,  to  all  and  every  person  and 
persons,  which  shall,  at  any  time  and  times  hereafter,  go 
and  pass  to  the  said  colony  in  New  England. 

And  further,  that  it  shall  be,  likewise,  lawful  for  the 
said  president,  or  his  deputy,  for  the  time  being,  or  any 
two  others  of  the  said  council,  for  the  said  colony  in  New 
England,  for  the  time  being,  from  time  to  time,  and  at  all 
times  hereafter,  to  minister  such  a  formal  oath,  as  by  their 
discretions. shall  be  reasonably  devised,  as  well  unto  any 
person  or  persons  employed,  or  to  be  employed  in,  for,  or 
touching  the  said  plantation,  for  their  honest,  faithful, 
and  just  discharge  of  their  service,  in  all  such  matters  as 
shall  be  committed  unto  them,  for  the  good  and  benefit  of 
the  said  company,  colony,  and  plantation,  as  aho  unto 
such  other  person  or  persons  as  the  said  president,  or  his 
deputy,  with  two  others  of  the  said  council,  shall  think 
meet,  for  the  examination  or  clearing  of  the  truth,  in 
any  cause  whatsoever  cnncerning  the  said  plantation,  or 
any  business  from  thence  proceeding,  or  thereunto  be- 
longing. 

And  to  the  end  that  no  lewd  or  ill  disposed  persons, 
sailors,  soldiers,  artificers,  hu^bandmen,  laborers,  or. others 
which  shall  receive  wares,  apparel,  or  other  entertainment 
from  the  said  council,  or  contract  and  agree  with  the  said 
council,   to  go,  and   to  serve,  and  to  be  employed  in   the 


1 80  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

said  plantation,  in  the  colony  in  New  England,  do  after- 
wards withdraw,  hide,  and  conceal  themselves,  or  refuse 
to  go  thither,  after  they  have  been  so  entertained  and 
agreed  withal,  and  that  no  persons  which  shall  be  sent 
and  employed  in  the  said  plantation  of  the  said  colony  in 
New  England,  upon  the  charge  of  the  said  council,  do 
misbehave  themselves  by  mutinous,  seditious,  or  other  no- 
torious misdemeanors,  or  which  shall  be  employed,  or  sent 
abroad  by  the  governor  of  New  England,  or  his  deputy, 
with  any  ship  or  pinnace,  for  provision  of  the  said  colony, 
or  for  some  discovery,  or  other  business  and  affairs  con- 
cerning the  same,  do,  from  thence,  treacherously  either 
come  back  again,  or  return  into  the  realm  of  England,  by 
stealth,  or  without  license  of  the  governor  of  the  said 
colony  in  New  England,  for  the  time  being,  or  be  sent 
hiiher  as  misdoers  or  offenders,  and  that  none  of  those 
persons,  after  their  return  from  thence,  being  questioned 
by  the  said  council  here  for  such  their  misbehaviors  and 
offences,  do,  by  insolent  and  contemptuous  carriage,  in 
the  presence  of  the  said  council,  shew  little  respect  and 
reverence,  either  to  the  place  or  authority  in  which  we 
have  placed  and  appointed  them,  and  others,  for  the  clear- 
ing of  their  lewdness  and  misdemeanors,  committed  in 
New  England,  divulge  vile  and  slanderous  reports  of  the 
country  of  New  England,  or  of  the  government  or  estate 
of  the  said  plantation  and  colony,  to  bring  the  said  voy- 
ages and  plantation  into  disgrace  and  contempt,  by 
means  whereof,  not  only  the  adventurers  and  planters 
already  engaged  in  the  said  plantation,  may  be  exceed- 
ingly abused,  and  hindered,  and  a  great  number  of  our 
loving  and  well  disposed  subjects,  otherwise  well  affect- 
ed, and  inclined  to  join  and  adventure  in  so  noble  a  chris- 
tian and  worthy  an  action,  may  be  discouraged  from  the 
same,  but  also  the   enterprise  itself,  may  be.  overthrown, 


AIEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  i  Q  i 

which  cannot  miscarry,  without  some  dishonor  to   us  and 
our  kingdom. 

We,  therefore,  for  preventing  of  so  great  and  enormous 
abuses  and  misdemeanors,  do,  by  these  presents,  for  us, 
our  heirs,  and  successors,  give  and  grant  unto  the  said 
president,  or  his  deputy,  or  such  other  person,  or  persons, 
as,  by  the  orders  of  the  said  council,  shall  be  appointed, 
by  warrant,  under  his  or  their  hand  or  hands,  to  send  for, 
or  cause  to  be  apprehended,  all  and  every  such  person 
and  persons,  who  shall  be  noted,  or  accused,  or  found,  at 
any  time  or  times  hereafter,  to  offend,  or  misbehave  them- 
selves, in  any  the  affairs  before  mentioned  and  expressed  ; 
and,  upon  the  examination  of  any  such  offender  or  offen- 
ders, and  just  proof,  made  by  oath,  taken  before  the  said 
council,  of  any  such  notorious  misdemeanors,  by  them 
to  be  committed,  as  aforesaid,  and  also,  upon  any  inso- 
lent, contemptuous,  or  unreverent  carriage,  or  misbeha- 
vior, to,  or  against  the  said  council,  to  be  shewed  or  used, 
by  any  such  person  or  persons,  so  called,  convinced,  and 
appearing  before  them,  as  aforesaid,  that,  in  all  such 
cases,  our  said  council,  or  any  two,  or  more  of  them,  for 
the  time  being,  shall,  and  may  have  full  power  and  au- 
thority, either  here  to  bind  them  over  with  good  securities 
for  their  good  behavior,  and  further  therein  to  proceed, 
to  all  intents  and  purposes,  as  it  is  used  in  other  like  cases 
within  our  realm  of  England,  or  else,  at  their  discretions, 
to  remand  and  send  back  the  said  offenders,  or  any  of 
them,  to  the  said  colony  of  New  England,  there  to  be 
proceeded  against  and  punished,  as  the  governors,  depu- 
ty, or  council  there,  for  the  time  being,  shall  think  meet, 
or  otherwise,  according  to  such  laws  and  ordinances,  as 
are,  and  shall  be  in  use  there,  for  the  well  ordering  and 
good  government  of  the  said  colony. 

And  our  will  and  pleasure  is,  and  we  do  hereby  declare, 
to  all  christian   kings,  princes,  and  states,  that,  if  any 


182  MEMOlil  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

person  or  persons,  which  shall  hereafter  be  of  the  said 
colony  or  plantation,  or  any  other,  by  license  or  appoint- 
ment of  the  said  council,  or  their  successors,  or  other- 
wise, shall,  at  any  time  or  times  hereafter,  rob,  or  spoil, 
by  sea  or  by  land,  or  do  any  hurt,  violence,  or  unlawful 
hostility,  to  any  of  the  subjects  of  us,  our  heirs,  or  suc- 
cessors, or  any  of  the  subjects  of  any  king,  prince,  ruler, 
or  governor,  or  state,  being  then  in  league  and  amity  with 
us,  our  heirs,  and  successors  ;  and  that,  upon  such  injury, 
or  upon  just  complaint  of  such  piince,  ruler,  governor,  or 
state,  or  their  subjects,  we,  our  heirs,  or  successors,  shall 
make  open  proclamation,  within  any  of  the  parts  of  our 
realm  of  England  commodious  for  that  purpose,  that  the 
person  or  persons  having  committed  any  such  robbery  or 
spoil,  shall,  within  the  time  limited  by  such  a  proclama- 
tion, make  full  restitution  or  satisfaction  of  all  such  inju- 
ries done,  so  as  the  said  princes,  or  others  so  complain- 
ing, may  Hold  themselves  fully  satisfied  and  contented  ; 
and  if  that  the  said  person  or  persons,  having  committed 
such  robbery  or  spoil,  shall  not  make,  or  cause  to  be 
made,  satisfaction  accordingly,  within  such  time  so  to  be 
limited,  that  then  it  shall  be  lawful  for  us,  our  heirs,  and 
successors,  to  put  the  said  person  or  persons  out  of  our 
allegiance  and  protection,  and  that  it  shall  be  lawful  and 
free  for  all  princes  to  prosecute  with  hostility  the  said 
offenders,  and  every  of  them,  their  and  every  of  their  pro- 
curers, aiders,  abettors,  and  comforters  in  that  behalf. 

Also,  we  do,  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  declare, 
by  these  presents,  that  all  and  every  the  persons  being 
our  subjects,  which  shall  go  and  inhabit  within  the  said 
colony  and  plantation,  and  every  of  their  children  and 
posterity,  which  shall  happen  to  be  born  within  the  limits 
thereof,  shall  have  and  enjoy  all  liberties,  and  franchises, 
and  immunities  of  free  denizens  and  natural  subjects,  with 
anv  of  our  other  dominions,  to  all   intents  and  purposes, 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  133 

as  if  they  had  been  abiding,  and  born  within  this  our 
kingd  ^ni  of  England,  or  any  other  our  df)ininions. 

And  lastly,  because  the  principal  eflecl  which  we  can 
desire,  <  r  expect  of  this  action,  is  the  conversion  of,  and 
reduction  of  the  people  in  those  parts,  unto  the  true  wor- 
ship of  God  and  christian  religion,  in  which  respect  we 
would  be  loath  that  any  person  should  be  permitted  to 
pass,  that  we  suspected  to  afiect  the  superstition  of  the 
church  of  Rome,  we  do  hereby  declare,  that  it  is  our  will 
and  pleasure,  that  none  be  permitted  to  pass  in  any  voy- 
age, from  lime  to  time  to  be  made  into  the  said  country, 
but  such  as  shall  first  have  taken  the  oath  of  supremacy  ; 
for  which  purpose,  wo  do,  by  these  presents,  give  full 
power  and  authority  to  the  president  of  the  said  council, 
to  tender  and  exhibit  the  said  oath  to  all  such  persons 
as  shall,  at  any  time,  be  sent  and  employed  in  the  said 
voyage. 

And  we  also,  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  do  cove- 
nant and  grant  to,  and  with  tiie  council,  and  their  suc- 
cessors, by  these  presents,  that  if  the  council,  for  the  time 
being,  and  their  successors,  or  any  of  them,  shall,  at  any 
time  or  times  hereafter,  upon  any  doubt  which  they  shall 
conceive,  concerning  the  strength  or  validity  in  law,  of 
this  our  present  grant,  or  be  desirous  to  have  the  same 
renewed  and  confirmed  by  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors, 
with  amendments  of  such  imperfections  and  defects,  as 
shall  appear  fit  and  necessary  to  the  said  council,  or  their 
successors,  to  be  reformed  and  amended,  on  the  belialf  of 
us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  and  for  the  furthering  of  the 
plantation  and  government,  or  the  increase,  continuing, 
and  flourishing  thereof,  that  then,  upon  the  humble  peti- 
tion of  the  said  council,  for  the  time  being,  and  their  suc- 
cessors, to  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  we,  our  heirs,  and 
successors,  shall  and  will,  forthwith,  make  and  pass,  under 


254  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

the  great  seal  of  England,  to  the  said  council,  and  their 
successors,  such  further  and  better  assurance  of  all  and 
singular  the  lands,  grounds,  royalties,  privileges,  and  pre- 
mises aforesaid,  granted,  or  intended  to  be  granted,  ac- 
cording to  our  true  intent  and  iigieaning,  in  these  our 
letters  patents,  signified,  declared,  or  mentioned,  as  by 
the  learned  council  of  usj  our  heirs,  and  successors,  and 
of  the  said  company,  and  their  successors,  shall,  in  that 
behalf,  be  reasonably  devised  or  advised. 

And  further,  our  will  and  pleasure  is,  that,  in  all  ques- 
tions and  doubts,  that  shall  arise  upon  any  difficulty  of 
construction  or  interpretation  of  anything  contained  in 
these  our  letters  patents,  the  same  shall  be  taken  and 
interpreted,  in  most  ample  and  beneficial  manner,  for  the 
said  council,  and  their  successors,  and  every  member 
thereof. 

And  we  do  further,  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors, 
charge  and  command  all  and  singular  admirals,  vice  ad- 
mirals, generals,  commanders,  captains,  justices  of  peace, 
mayors,  sheriffs,  bailiffs,  constables,  customers,  comptrol- 
lers, waiters,  searchers,  and  all  the  officers  of  us,  our 
heirs,  and  successors  whatsoever,  to  be,  from  time  to  time, 
and  at  all  times  hereafter,  in  all  things  aiding,  helping, 
and  assisting  unto  the  said  council,  and  their  successors, 
and  unto  every  of  them,  upon  request  and  requests,  by 
them  to  be  made,  in  all  matters  and  things,  for  the  further- 
ance and  accomplishment  of  all  or  any  the  matters  and 
things  by  us,  in,  and  by  these  our  letters  patents,  given, 
granted,  and  provided,  or  by  us  meant  or  intended  to  be 
given,  granted,  and  provided,  as  they,  our  said  oflScer,  and 
the  officers  of  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  do  tender  our 
pleasure,  and  will  avoid  the  contrary,  at  their  perils. 

And  also,  we  do,  by  these  presents,  ratify  and  confirm 
unto  the  said  council,  and  their  successors,  all  privileges, 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  185 

franchise^,  liberties,  and  immunities,  granted  in  our  said 
former  letters  patents,  and  not  in  these  our  letters  patents, 
revoked,  altered,  changed,  or  abridged,  although  expres- 
sed, mentioned,  &c.  —  In  witness,  &c,  witness  ourself  at 
Westminster,  the  third  day  of  November,  in  the  eighteenth 
year  of  our  reign  over  England,  &c. 


It  will  be  perceived  that  by  this  patent  of  November  3d, 
1620,  King  James  I.  undertook  to  grant  to  the  council 
established  at  Plymouth,  in  the  county  of  Devon,  England, 
all  the  territory  in  North  America  included  between  the 
40th  and  48th  degrees  of  north  latitude.  This  grant  in- 
cluded within  its  limits  all  that  territory  which  now  forms 
the  provinces  of  Nova  Scotia,  New  Brunswick,  and  Upper 
and  Lower  Canada ;  and  within  the  United  States,  the 
New  England  States,  New  York,  the  largest  part  of  New 
Jersey,  nearly  the  whole  of  Pennsylvania,  and  of  the  new 
Western  Slates,  the  greater  part  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois, 
a  small  part  of  Missouri,  the  whole  territory  of  Michigan, 
and  a  large  tract  of  the  wilderness  extending  to  the  Pa- 
cific ocean.  Excepting  therefrom  however,  such  a  part  as 
should  be  '  actually  possessed,  or  inhabited  by  any  other 
christian  prince,  or  state.' 

A  patent  was  granted  by  the  council  for  trade,  and  for 
lands,  in  1621,  to  John  Peirce  in  trust  for  the  use  of  the 
colony,  as  has  been  before  related,  which  was  signed  by 
the  duke  of  Lenox,  the  marquis  of  Hamilton,  Sir  Ferdi- 
nando  Gorges,  and  another.* 

*  Judge  Davis  in  his  valuable  edition  of  Morton's  memorial,  has  set  forth  at 
large,  the  terms  and  conditions  of  this  patent,  which  were  as  follows  : 

'  It  grants  to  the  patentee  and  his  associates,  who  are  recited  to  have  under- 
taken a  plantation  in  New  England,  100  acres  of  land  for  each  person,  if  they 
should  continue  there  three  years ;  either  at  one  or  several  times,  or  die  in  the 

24 


186  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

By  this  patent  no  territorial  limits  were  defined,  and  it 
does  not  appear  that  any  proceedings  whatever  were  had 
♦  on  the   part  of  the  settlers  under  its  authority. 

Peirce  afterwards  in  1622,  without  their  knowledge  or 
consent,  obtained  a  more  ample  patent  in  his  own  name, 
for  which  he  paid  £50,  and  under  which  he  intended 
to  establish  a  manorial  court,  and  compel  all  the  settlers 
to  hold  of  him  as  lord  of  the  manor,  and  with  a  view 
to  enforce  the  privileges  of  his  patent,  he  embarked 
for  the  colony  in  December,  1622,  but  disasters  pursued 
him,  and  having  been  compelled  to  return  twice,  and  being 

mean  season,  after  they  should  be  shipped,  with  intent  tliere  to  inhabit;  the 
land  to  be  taken  and  chosen  in  any  place  or  places  not  inhabited  or  settled  by 
any  English,  or  by  order  of  the  council  made  choice  of ;  and  with  the  further 
allowance  of  100  acres  for  every  person  sent  by  the  undertakers,  at  their  own 
expense,  to  the  intended  plantation,  within  the  term  of  seven  years,  reserving 
a  quit  rent  of  25.  for  each  100  acres,  to  be  paid  to  the  president  and  council  of 
New  England,  after  tlie  expiration  of  seven  years.  Fifteen  hundred  acres  for 
every  undertaker,  are  granted  for  the  erection  of  churches,  schools,  hospitals, 
town  houses,  &c,  and  for  the  maintenance  of  magistrates,  and  officers.  Free 
liberty  of  fishing  on  the  coast,  and  in  the  bays,  harbors,  &c,  of  New  England, 
is  granted,  and  freedom  of  trade  with  England,  or  elsewhere,  paying  such  du- 
ties, as  the  council  were  holden  to  pay  :  also  privilege  of  trading  with  the  sav- 
ages, and  to  "  hunt,  hawk,  fish,  or  fowl,  in  any  place  not  inhabited  by  any 
English."  There  is  covenant  for  further  assurance,  and  after  due  survey  of  the 
lands  located,  within  seven  years,  for  enfeoffinent  and  confirmation  of  the  ter- 
ritory, by  letters  of  incorporation,  v^ith  authority  to  make  laws,  ordinances,  and 
constitutions,  for  the  rdle  and  government  of  all  persons  belonging  to  the  plan- 
tation. Authority  is  also  given  to  defend  the  possessions  and  privileges  granted, 
by  force  of  arms,  against  all  invaders  and  intruders,  and  when  the  lands  granted 
should  be  planted,  it  is  agreed  that  there  shall  be  a  further  allowance  and  grant 
of  50  acres  for  each  person  transported  and  settled  in  the  plantation.  The 
patentees  agree  to  cause  a  particular  account  to  be  rendered  of  all  persons  con- 
veyed to  the  plantation,  and  "  that  they  shall  apply  themselves  and  their  labors, 
.  in  a  large  and  competent  manner,  to  the  planting,  selling,  making,  and  procuring 
of  good  and  staple  commodities,  in  and  upon  the  said  land  granted  unto  them,  as 
corn,  and  silk  grass,  hemp,  flax,  pitch,  and  tar,  soap,  ashes,  and  pot  ashes,  iron, 
clapboards,  and  other  like  materials."' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  js? 

both  times  in  imminent  danger  of  shipwreck,  he  became 
discouraged  and  relinquished  his  undertaking,  and  in  con- 
sideration of  £500,  assigned  his  patent  to  the  company. 

Still  the  settlers  were  anxious  to  obtain  a  charter  con- 
ferring more  ample  political  powers,  defining  their  limits, 
and  placing  them  on  the  footing  of  the  most  favored  En- 
glish subjects.  A  patent  was  issued  to  William  Bradford 
then  the  governor  of  Plymouth,  and  his  associates,  Janu- 
ary 30th  1629,  in  the  first  year  of  the  reign  of  King 
Charles,  by  which  those  powers  and  privileges  were  be- 
stowed. To  this  patent  the  settlers  were  anxious  to 
obtain  the  royal  sanction,  which  the  king  promised  to  give, 
but  delayed  and  finally  refused  to  affix  his  signature 
to  the  instrument,  and  after  waiting  some  years,  probably 
to  1635  or  1636,  they  proceeded  to  settle  the  foundatior. 
of  their  government  on  a  permanent  basis,  and  defined 
particularly  the  powers  of  the  governor  and  the  assistants. 
In  1638  they  transferred  the  power  which  was  in  the  whole 
body  of  the  freemen,  to  committees  or  deputies'  from  the 
several  towns  in  the  colony,  who  assembled  for  the  first 
time,  June,  1639.  On  the  2d  of  March,  1640,  Governor 
Bradford  surrendered  to  the  freemen  the  patent  of  the 
colony,  which  had  been  taken  in  his  name,  reserving 
three  tracts,  described  in  the  instrument  of  assignment, 
for  the  '  purchasers  or  old  comers.'  The  tracts  reserved 
were  the  following  :  '  First  from  the  bounds  of  Yarmouth, 
three  miles  to  the  eastward  of  Naemsketkitt,  and  from  sea 
to  sea,  cross  the  neck  of  land  ;  the  second  place  of  a 
place  called  Acconquesse,  (alias  Acokus)  which  lyeth  in 
the  bottom  of  the  bay  adjoining  to  the  west  side  of  Poynt 
Perill,  and  two  miles  to  the  western  side  of  the  said  river, 
to  another  place  called  Acqussent  river,  which  entereth 
at  the  western  end  of  Nickatay,  and  two  miles  to  the  east- 
ward thereof,  and  to  extend  eight  miles  up  into  the  county  : 


i88  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

the  third  place  from  Sowamsett  river  to  Patuckquett  river, 
with  Cansumpsett  neck,  which  is  the  cheefe  habitation  of 
the  Indians,  and  reserved  for  them  to  dwell  upon,  extend- 
ing into  the  land  eight  miles  through  the  whole  breadth 
thereof.'* 

In  this  patent  a  tract  of  land  was  included  on  the  Ken- 
nebeck  river. 

The  general  court  at  this  time  (probably)  thought  it 
expedient,  (perhaps  in  consequence  of  the  imperfection  of 
their  patent,  which  had  never  received  the  sanction  of  the 
crown,)  to  set  forth  their  rights  in  a  formal  declaration,  in 
which  they  carefully  enumerated  all  their  claims  of  title, 
and  recited  every  circumstance  which  could  be  brought 
to  strengthen  it.  As  this  declaration  not  only  set  forth 
the  whole  patent  which  was  issued  to  Governor  Bradford 
in  1629,  but  all  the  grounds  on  which  they  afterwards 
proceeded  to  act  as  an  independent  colony,  and  to  grant 
the  lands  within  its  limits,  its  insertion  in  this  work  is  not 
only  proper  but  necessary  for  a  right  explanation  of  the 
manner  in  which  titles  to  lands  were  derived  in  this  ter- 
ritory. 

A  Declaration  demonstrating  the  warrantable  grounds  and  proceedings  of  the 
first  associates  of  the  Government  of  New  Plymouth,  in  laying  the  first  foun- 
dation of  the  Government  in  this  jurisdiction,  for  making  of  laws  and  dispos- 
ing of  lands,  and  all  such  things  as  may  conduce  to  the  well  being  of  this 
Corporation  of  New  England. 

Whereas  John  Carver,  William  Bradford,  Edward  Wins- 
low,  William  Brewster,  Isaac  Allerton,  and  divers  others, 

*  '  The  first  tract  (says  Judge  Davis)  is  on  Cape  Cod,  comprehending  East- 
ham,  Orleans,  Brewster,  and  it  is  believed,  Harwich  and  Chatham. 

'  The  second  tract  is  the  present  towns  of  Dartmouth,  and  New  Bedford.' 
The  third  tract  the  '  cheefe  '  residence  of  the  Indians  and  reserved  for  them; 
embraces  Swansey  and  Rehoboth  in  Massachusetts,  Barrington  and  Warren  ia 
Rhode  Island,  and  perhaps  Bristol, 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  j  39 

the  subjects  of  our  late  sovereign  lord  King  James  by  the 
grace  of  God,  King  of  England,  Scotland,  France,  and 
Ireland,  defender  of  the  faith,  who  did  in  the  eighteenth 
year  of  his  reign  of  England,  France,  and  Ireland,  and  of 
Scotland  the  fiftyfourth,  which  was  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
God  one  thousand  six  hundred  and  twenty,  undertake  a 
voyage  into  that  part  of  America  called  Virginia,  or  New 
England,  thereunto  adjoining,  there  to  erect  a  plantation 
or  colony  of  English,  intending  the  glory  of  God,  the 
enlargement  of  his  Majesty's  dominions,  and  the  general 
good  of  the  English  nation. 

And  whereas,  by  the  good  providence  of  God,  the  said 
John  Carver,  William  Bradford,  Edward  Winslow,  William 
Brewster,  Isaac  AUerton,  and  their  associates  arrived  in 
New  England  aforesaid,  in  the  harbor  of  Cape  Cod,  or 
Paomett,  situate  and  being  in  New  England  aforesaid, 
where  all  the  first  persons  entered  into  a  civil  combination 
being  the  eleventh  day  of  November,  in  the  year  afore- 
mentioned, as  the  subjects  of  our  said  sovereign  lord  the 
King  to  become  a  body  politic,  binding  ourselves  to  ob- 
serve such  lawa  and  ordinances,  and  obey  such  officers 
as  from  time  to  time  should  be  made  and  chosen  ;  for  the 
well  ordering  and  guidance  ;  and  thereupon  by  the  favor 
of  the  Almighty  began  the  first  colony  in  New  England, 
there  being  then  no  other  within  the  said  continent,  at  a 
place  called  by  the  natives  Apaum,  alias  Patuxett,  and  by 
the  English  New  Plymouth,  all  which  lands  being  void  of 
inhabitants,  we  the  said  John  Carver,  William  Bradford, 
Edward  Winslow,  William  Brewster,  Isaac  Allerton,  and 
the  rest  of  our  associates  entering  into  a  league  of  peace 
with  Massasoiet,  since  called  Woosamequin,  Prince  or 
Sachem  of  these  parts,  he  the  said  Massasoiet  freely  gave 
them  all  the  lands  adjacent  to  them,  and  their  heirs  forever, 
acknowledging  himself  content  to  become  the  subject  of 


190  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

our  lord  the  King  aforesaid,  his  heirs  and  successors,  and 
taking  protection  of  us  the  said  John  Carver,  William 
Bradford,  Edward  Winslow,  William  Brewster,  Isaac  Al- 
lerton,  and  their  associates  the  natural  subjects  of  our 
sovereign  lord  the  King  aforesaid  :  but  having  no  special 
letters  patents  for  the  said  parts  of  New  England,  but 
only  the  general  law  and  liberty  of  our  consciences  in  the 
public  worship  of  God  wherever  we  should  settle  ;  being 
therefore  now  settled  and  requiring  special  license  and 
commission  from  his  majesty  for  the  ordering  of  our  affairs, 
under  his  gracious  protection,  had  sundry  commissions 
made  and  confirmed  by  his  said  majesty's  council  for  New 
Eno-land,  to  John  Peirce  and  his  associates  whose  names 
we  only  made  use  of,  and  whose  associates  we  were  in  the 
late  happy  and  memorable  reign  of  our  sovereign  lord 
Kino-  James: — But  finding  ourselves  still  straightened, 
and  a  willingness  in  the  honorable  xiouncil  aforesaid  to 
enlarge  us,  partly  in  regard  of  the  many  difficulties  we 
had  undergone,  and  partly  in  regard  of  the  good  service 
we  had  done,  as  well  in  relieving  his  majesty's  subjects  as 
otherwise,  we  procured  a  further  enlargement  under  the 
name  of  William  Bradford  aforesaid  and  his  associates, 
whose  names  we  likewise  used,  ajid  whose  associates  as 
formerly  we  still  are,  by  virtue  of  which  said  letters  pa- 
tents liberty  is  given  to  us  derivatory  from  our  sovereign 
lord  King  Charles,  bearing  date  the  thirtieth  of  January 
1629,  being  the  first  year  of  his  reign  of  England,  and 
Scotland,  France  and  Ireland,  &c,  and  signed  by  the  right 
honorable  Robert,  earl  of  Warwick,  in  the  behalf  of  his 
majesty's  council  for  New  England,  and  sealed  with  their 
common  seal  to  frame  and  make  orders,  ordinances,  and 
constitutions  for  the  ordering,  disposing,  and  governing  of 
our  persons,  and  distributing  of  our  lands  within  the  said 
limits. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  19 1 

To  be  holden  of  his  majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors, 
as  of  his  manor  of  East  Greenwich  in  the  county  of  Kent, 
in  free  and  common  socage,  and  not  in  capite,  nor  by 
knights  service  :  viz.  —  all  that  part  of  America  and  tract 
and  tracts  of  land  that  lyeth  within  or  between  a  certain 
rivolett  or  rundelett  commonly  called  Coahasset  alias 
Conahassett  towards  the  north,  and  the  river  called  Nar- 
ragansett  river,  towards  the  south,  and  the  great  western 
ocean  towards  the  east,  and  within  and  between  a  straight 
line  directly  extending  into  the  maine  towards  the  west 
from  the  mouth  of  the  said  river  called  Narragansett  river, 
to  the  utmost  bounds  and  limits  of  a  country  or  place  in 
New  England  called  Pocanaukett,  alias  Puckanakick, 
alias  Sovvamsett,  westwards;  and  another  like  straight  line 
extending  itself  directly  from  the  mouth  o^  the  said  river 
called  (!oahasset,  alias  Conahassett  towards  the  west,  so 
far  up  into  the  maine  land  westwards,  to  the  utmost  limits 
of  the  said  place  or  country  called  Pocanaukett,  alias  Po- 
canaukick,  alias  Sowamsett,  doth  extend  :  together  with 
the  one  half  of  the  said  river  called  Narragansett,  and 
the  said  rivolelt  or  rundelett,  called  Coahasset,  alias  Co- 
nahassett, and  all  lands,  rivers,  waters,  havens,  creeks, 
ports,  fishings,  fowlings,  and  all  hereditaments,  profits, 
commodities,  and  emoluments,  whatsoever,  situate,  lying 
and  being  or  arising  within  or  between  the  said  limits  or 
bounds,  or  any  of  them  :  — 

Furthermore,  all  that  tract  or  part  of  land  in  New  En- 
gland, or  part  of  America  aforesaid,  which  lyeth  within  or 
between,  and  extending  itself  from  the  utmost  limits  of 
Cobbisecontee,  alias  Comaccecontee,  which  adjoins  to  the 
river  of  Kennebeck,  alias  Kenebekick,  towards  the  western 
ocean,  and  a  place  called  the  falls  at  Nekaumkick,  in 
America  aforesaid  ;  and  the  space  of  fifteen  English  miles 
on  each  side  of  the  river  commonly  called  Kennebeck  river, 


1  92  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

that  lyeth  within  the  aforesaid  bounds  eastwards,  west- 
wards, and  northwards,  and  southwards,  last  abovemen- 
tioned,  and  all  lands,  grounds,  soils,  rivers,  waters,  fishings, 
hereditaments,  and  profits,  whatsoever  situate  lying  and 
being,  arising,  happening,  or  accruing  within  the  said 
limits  or  bounds,  or  either  of  them,  together  with  free 
ingiess,  egress,  and  regress,  with  ships,  boats,  shallops, 
and  other  vessels  from  the  sea  called  the  western  ocean, 
to  the  river  called  Kennebeck,  and  from  the  said  river  to 
the  same  western  ocean,  together  with  all  prerogatives, 
rights,  royalties,  and  jurisdictions,  privileges,  franchises, 
liberties,  and  immunities,  and  also  marine  liberties, 
escheats,  and  casualties,  (the  admiralty  jurisdiction  ex- 
'^  cepted,)  with  all  the  interest,  right,  title,  claim,  and 
demand  whatsoever,  where  the  said  council  and  their 
successors  now  have,  or  ought  to  have,  or  may  have,  or 
require  hereafter,  in  or  to  any  of  the  said  tract  or  portion 
of  lands  hereby  mentioned  to  be  granted,  or  any  the 
premises  in  as  free,  large,  ample,  and  beneficial  manner 
to  all  intents  and  constructions  whatever,  as  the  said 
council  by  virtue  of  his  majesty's  said  letters  patent  may 
or  can  grant. 

To  have  and  to  hold  the  said  tract  or  tracts  of  land,  and 
all  and  singular  the  premises  abovementioned,  to  be  grant- 
ed with  their  and  every  of  their  appurtenances  to  the  said 
William  Bradford,  his  heirs,  associates,  and  assigns  forever, 
to  the  only  proper  use  and  absolute  behoofe  of  the  said 
William  Bradford,  his  heirs,  associates,  and  assigns  forever, 
yielding  and  paying  unto  our  sovereign  lord  the  king,  his 
heirs,  and  successors  forever,  one  fifth  part  of  the  ore  of  the 
mines  of  gold  and  silver,  and  one  other  fifth  thereof  to  the 
president  and  council,  which  shall  be  had,  possessed  and 
obtained  within  the  precincts  aforesaid  for  all  services  and 
demands  whatsoever ;  allowing  the  said  William  Bradford, 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  193 

his  associates,  and  assigns,  and  every  of  them,  his  and 
their  agents,  tenants  and  servants,  and  all  such  as  he  or 
they  shall  send  or  employ  about  the  said  particular  plan- 
tation ;  shall  and  may  from  time  to  time  freely,  lawfully 
go  and  return,  trade  or  traffic  as  well  with  the  English  as 
any  the  natives  within  the  precincts  aforesaid,  with  liberty 
of  fishing  upon  any  part  of  the  sea  coast,  and  sea  shores 
of  any  of  the  seas  or  islands  adjacent,  and  not  being  in- 
habited and  otherwise  disposed  of  by  order  of  said  presi- 
dent and  council,  forbidding  all  others  to  traffic  with  the 
natives  or  inhabitants  in  any  of  the  said  limits  without  the 
special  leave  of  the  said  William  Bradford,  his  heirs,  and 
associates,  and  allowing  the  said  William  Bradford,  his 
heirs  and  associates  to  take,  apprehend,  seize,  and  make 
prize  of  all  such  their  ships  and  goods,  as  shall  attempt 
to  inhabit,  or  trade  with  the  salvage  people  as  aforesaid. 

Moreover,  whereas  in  the  first  beginning  of  this  colony 
divers  merchants  and  others  of  the  city  of  London,  and 
elsewhere,  adventured  divers  sums  of  money  with  the  said 
John  Carver,  William  Bradford,  Edward  Winslow,  William 
Brewster  and  the  rest  of  their  associates,  on  certain  terms 
of  partnership,  to  continue  for  the  term  of  seven  years, 
the  said  term  being  expired,  the  said  plantation  by  reason 
of  manifold  losses,   and   crosses   by  sea  and  land,  in  the 
beginning  of  so  great  a  work,  being  largely  indebted,  and 
no  means  to  pay  the  said  debts  but  by  the   sale  of   the 
whole,  and  the  same  being  put  upon  sale,  the  said  William 
Bradford,  Edward  Winslow,  William  Brewster,  Isaac  Al- 
lerton   and   others  our  associates,  the  inhabitants  of  New 
Plymouth,  and  elsewhere,  being  loath  to  be  deprived  of  our 
labor ;  bought  the  same  for  and  in  consideration  of  eigh- 
teen hundred  pounds  sterling,  viz.  all  and  singular  the 
privileges,  lands,  goods,  chattels,  ordinance,  ammunition, 
or  whatsoever  appertained  to  the  said  plantation,  or  the 
25 


194  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

adventurers,  with  all  and  singular  the  privileges  thereunto 
belonging  as  appears  by  a  deed  between  the  said  Isaac 
Allerton  then  agent  for  the  said  William  Bradford  and  his 
associates  on  the  one  part,  and  John  Pocock,  Robert  Keine, 
Edward  Basse,  James  Shirley,  and  John  Beauchamp  on 
the  other  part,  being  thereunto  requested  by  the  said 
merchants,  and  the  rest  adventuring  as  aforesaid,  as  ap- 
pears by  a  deed  bearing  date  the  sixth  of  November,  in 
the  third  year  of  the  reign  of  our  sovereign  lord,  Charles, 
by  the  grace  of  God,  king  of  England,  Scotland,  France, 
and  Ireland,  et  Anno  Dom.  1627. 

Be  it  known  unto  all  men  by  these  presents,  that  accord- 
ing to  our  first  intents,  and  for  the  better  effecting  the 
glory  of  God, —  the  enlargement  of  the  dominions  of  our 
said  sovereign  lord  the  king,  and  the  special  good  of  his 
subjects,  by  virtue  as  well  of  our  combination  aforesaid, 
as  also  the  several  grants  by  us  procured  in  the  name  of 
John  Peirce,  and  William  Bradford,  their  heirs,  'and 
associates,  together  Vv^ith  our  lawful  right,  in  respect  of 
our  donation  and  purchase  of  the  natives,  and  our  full 
purchase  of  the  adventurers  before  expressed,  having 
given  unto  and  allotted  and  assigned  and  granted  to  all 
and  every  them  and  theirs,  whose  name  or  names  shall 
follow  upon  this  public  record  such  proportion  or  propor- 
tions of  lands  with  all  and  singular  the  privileges  thereunto 
belonging  as  aforesaid  ;  to  him  or  them,  his  or  their  heirs, 
or  assigns  successively  forever  : — to  be  holden  as  of  his 
majesty,  his  manor  of  East  Greenwich,  in  the  county  of 
Kent,  in  free  and  common  socage,  and  not  in  capite  nor 
by  knight's  service  : — yielding  and  paying  unto  our  said 
sovereign  lord  the  king,  his  heirs,  and  successors  forever, 
one  fifth  part  of  the  ore  of  the  mines  of  the  gold  and  sil- 
ver, and  one  other  fifth  part  to  the  president  and  council, 
which  shall  be  possessed  and  obtained  as  aforesaid. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  195 

And  whatsoever  lands  are  granted  to  any  by  the  said 
William  ^Bradford,  Edward  Winslow,  William  Brewster, 
Isaac  Allerton,  or  their  heirs,  or  associates,  as  aforesaid^ 
being  acknowledged  in  public  court,  and  brought  to  this 
book  of  records  of  the  several  inheritances  of  the  subjects 
of  our  sovereign  lord  the  king  within  this  government. — 
It  shall  be  lawful  for  the  governor  of  New  Plymouth  (from 
time  to  time  successively)  to  give  under  his  hand  and  the 
common  seal  of  the  government,  a  copy  of  the  said  grant 
so  recorded,  confirming  the  said  lands  to  him  or  them  ; 
his  or  their  heirs,  or  assigns,  forever,  with  the  several 
bounds  and  limits  of  the  same,  which  shall  be  sufficient 
evidence  in  law  from  time  to  time,  and  at  all  times  for  all 
intents  and  purposes,  the  said  party  or  parties,  his  or  their 
assigns  forever. 

To  have  and  to  hold  the  said  portion  of  lands,  so  granted, 
bounded,  and  recorded,  as  aforesaid,  with  all  and  singular 
the  appurtenances  belonging  thereunto  ;  to  the  only  proper 
and  absolute  use  and  behoof  of  the  said  party  or  parties, 
his  or  their  heirs,  or  assigns  forever.  * 

It  is  unaccountable  that  the  general  court  after  this 
careful  enumeration  of  the  several  titles  to  the  lands  and 
sovereignty  of  New  Plymouth,  namely,  their  original  com- 
bination for  civil  government  November  11th,  1620;  the 
donation  of  Massasoiet,  of  Patuxet,  and  the  lands  adja- 
cent ;  the  two  patents  of  Peirce ;  the  final  patent  to  Wil- 
liam Bradford  ;  the  purchase  from  Pocock,  Keine,  Bass, 
Shirley,  and  Beauchamp,  acting  on  the  part  of  the  adven- 
turers, of  all  the  trade  and  common  property  of  the  colony, 
should  have  omitted  the  mention  of  the  great  patent 
of  New  England  to  the  council  established  at  Plymouth, 
(England,)  although  they  recite  the  very  words  of  that 
patent  so  far  as  respects  the  grants  of  lands,  which  were 


196  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY- 

unquestionably  copied  from  the  great  patent  when  the 
patent  of  1629  was  issued. 

This  great  patent  is  the  foundation  of  all  the  titles  to 
land  in  New  England.  Under  a  patent  derivatory  from 
this,  Massachusetts  afterwards  claimed  a  tract  of  land 
equal  in  breadth  to  the  length  of  the  western  line  of  that 
state  in  the  western  territory  of  New  York,  which  claim 
was  compromised  to  the  satisfaction  of  Massachusetts. 

Connecticut  on  similar  grounds,  claimed  a  part  of  the 
territory  called  the  Susquehannah  country,  and  obtained 
the  Connecticut  Reserve  in  the  state  of  Ohio. 


(      197      ) 


CHAPTER  X. 

Settlement  of  Massachusetts. — First  public  execution  in  Plymouth. — Kindness 
of  the  Indians. — Mr  Allerton  becomes  dissatisfied  and  leaves  the  colony. — ■ 
Dispute  with  Massachusetts. — Narragansetts  threaten  Massasoiet. — AUer- 
ton's  enmity. — Sir  Christopher  Gardner  arrested,  and  Massachusetts  and 
Plymouth  brought  into  difficulty,  but  finally  satisfy  King  Charles.— Edward 
Winslow  elected  Governor. — A  trading  house  on  Connecticut  liver  erected. — 
Disputes  with  the  Dutch  and  with  Massachusetts. — Infectious  fever. — Mr 
Collier  arrives. — Thomas  Prince  elected  Governor. — Capt.  Stone  seizes 
a  Plymouth  bark  in  Connecticut  river. —  Hocking  killed  at  Kennebeck, 
and  John  Alden  arrested  at  Boston  and  released. — Trade  of  Plymouth. — 
William  Bradford  again  elected  Governor. — Trading  house  at  Penobscot  cap- 
tured by  the  French,  and  negotiation  with  Massachusetts  for  their  dislodg- 
ment. — First  Settlements  in  Connecticut. 

Mc.cyr^  The  failure  of  Weston's  attempt  to  settle  Wessa- 
gusset  in  the  summer  of  1622,  and  the  ill  success 
of  Gorges  whcr  renewed  the  attempt  in  September  1623, 
have  been  already  related.  Two  of  Gorges'  company  it 
is  probable  remained  at  Wessagusset,  namely,  Mr  Jeffrey 
and  Mr  Burslem,  (or  Burseley)  where  they  were  joined  by 
some  families  from  Weymouth,  (in  England)  in  1629,  who 
gave  to  Wessagusset  the  name  of  Weymouth.  Wollaston's 
settlement  at  Mount  Wollaston,  (afterwards  Braintree 
now  Quincy)  shared  the  ill  fortune  of  the  two  first,  and 
was  evacuated  in  1628. 

In  1624,  John  Oldham  expelled  from  Plymouth,  settled 
at  Nantasket,  (since  called  Hull)  where  Roger  Conant  and 
some  others  who  were  displeased  with  the  proceedings  at 
Plymouth,  joined   him.      Oldham  probably  remained  at 


19S  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Nantasket  until  1630,  when  he  was  at  Watertown.  Conant 
and  some  of  the  others  in  1625  went  to  Cape  Anne,  and 
afterwards  removed  to  Naumkeag,  (of  which  he,  together 
with  John  Woodbury,  John  Balch,  and  Peter  Palfreys, 
were  the  first  settlers  in  1626.)  About  that  time  William 
jBlackstone  an  Episcopalian  Clergyman  was  the  sole 
occupant  of  Shawmut,  (Boston)  where  he  had  erected 
a  cottageand  planted  an  orchard.  David  Thompson 
who  had  removed  from  Piscataqua,  occupied  Thompson's 
Island  in  Boston  Harbor,  and  Samuel  Maverick  who  is 
represented  by  the  ancient  writers  as  a  gentleman  of  the 
kindest  and  most  courteous  disposition,  occupied  Noddle's 
Island  which  he  had  fortified.  Thomas  Walford*  a  smith, 
was  at  Mishawum  (Charlestown).  Previous  to  1628  these 
were  all  the  settlers  of  Massachusetts,  as  far  as  can  be 
ascertained. 

On  the  19th  of  March,  1627,  the  council  for  New  Eng- 
land granted  a  patent  for  trade,  soil,  and  planting,  &c.  to 
Sir  Henry  Roswell,  Sir  John  Young,  Thomas  Southcoat, 
John  Humphrey,  John  Endicot,  Simon  Whetcomb,  and 
their  associates.  This  association  was  formed  through 
the  influence  and  exertions  of  Mr  White,  a  puritan  min- 
ister of  Dorchester,  (England,)  whose  object  was  to  es- 
tablish a  religious  colony  of  a  faith  pure  and  undefiled  in 
New  England. 

A  royal  charter  was  obtained  March  4,  1628,  by  the 
patentees  and  their  associates. f 

*  The  name  of  Thomas  Walford  appears  in  1640,  at  Portsmouth,  as  a  church 
warden. 

t  The  associates  were  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Isaac  Johnson,  Samuel  Alder- 
sey,  John  Ven,  Matthew  Cradock,  George  Harwood,  Increase  Nowell,  Rich- 
ard Perry,  Richard  Bellingham,  Nathaniel  Wright,  Samuel  Vassal!,  Theophi- 
lus  Eaton,  Thomas  Goff,  Thomas  Adams,  John  Brown,  Samuel  Brown,  Thomas 
Hutchins,  William  Vassall,  William  Pynchon,  and  George  Foxcraft, 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  199 

In  September,  1628,  John  Endicot,  one  of  the  asso- 
ciates, with  several  others,  amongst  whom  were  Mr  Gott, 
Mr  Brackenbury,  Capt.  Trask,  and  three  brothers  of  the 
name  of  Sprague,  (Ralph,  Richard,  and  William,)  arrived 
at  Naumkeag.  Theirs  was  the  first  successful  attempt  to 
establish  a  permanent  settlement  in  Massachusetts,  and 
Endicot,  although  he  was  afterwards  overshadowed  by 
the  high  character  of  John  Winthrop,  may  be  considered 
the  real  founder  of  the  colony. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  associates  in  the  city  of  London, 
(April  30,  1629,)  Endicot  was  elected  governor  of  the 
plantation,  and  Francis  Higginson,  Samuel  Skelton,  and 
Francis  Bright,  three  Puritan  ministers,  John  Brown,  Sam- 
uel Brown,  Thomas  Graves,  and  Samuel  Sharp,  were 
chosen  a  council.  On  the  24th  of  June,  they,  (with  the 
exception  of  Endicot,  who  was  already  there,)  and  many 
others  arrived  at  Naumkeag,  which  place  they  imme- 
diately called  Salem.  Shortly  after,  Thomas  Graves  and 
Mr  Bright,  went  to  Mishawum,  and  several  joining  them, 
they  laid  out  and  settled  a  town,  which  they  called,  in 
honor  of  the  king,  Charlestown.  Ralph  Smith,  the  other 
minister,  who  was  sent  to  Salem,  left  that  place  and  went 
to  Nantasket,  and  afterwards  to  Plymouth,  of  which  he 
became  the  first  pastor,  in  1629. 

On  the  thirtieth  of  May,  1630,  Warham,  Maverick, 
Rossiter,  and  Ludlow,  arrived  at  Nantasket.  Taking  a 
boat,  they  went  up  Charles  river,  and  sat  down  at  a  place 
since  called  Watertown,  but  in  a  few  days  they  were  or- 
dered to  remove  to  Mattapan,  (now  Dorchester,)  and  there 
they  commenced  a  settlement. 

Between  the  twelfth  of  June  and  the  thirtieth  of  July, 
(1630,)  a  fleet  of  eleven  ships  arrived  from  England, 
bringing  over  a  great  number  of  passengers  ;  with  them 
came  the  governor,  the   eminent   John  Winthrop.     They 


200  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

first  settled  at  Charlestown,  where  Mr  Bright,  Mr  Graves, 
and  several  others,  had  previously  seated  themselves,  but 
not  finding  good  water,  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall  and  some 
others  were  induced  to  go  up  the  river,  and  they  settled 
Watertown. 

The  only  person  residing  on  the  peninsula  then  called 
Shawmut,  (now  Boston,)  was  William  Blackstone.  The 
English  at  Charlestown,  learning  from  him,  that  there 
was  a  spring  of  fine  water  there,  and  being  cordially  in- 
vited to  come,  Mr  Johnson  and  some  others  went  over  and 
settled  ;  the  governor  and  most  of  the  others  soon  followed ; 
and  the  accidental  advantage  of  a  spring  of  good  water 
transferred  the  metropolitan  honors  of  New  England  from 
Charlestown  to  Boston. 

Blackstone  had  been  an  Episcopalian  clergyman  in 
England,  but  disliking  '  the  power  of  the  lords  Bishops,' 
to  escape  from  it,  he  abandoned  his  country.  In  1634, 
his  right  and  title  to  the  peninsula  of  Shawmut,  '  he  hav- 
ing been  the  first  European  occupant,'  was  purchased  by 
the  inhabitants  of  Boston,  each  of  them  paying  him  6s. 
and  some  of  them  more.  In  1635,  '  becoming  discontented 
with  the  power  of  the  Lord's  brethren  here,'  he  removed 
from  Boston,  to  a  place  on  Pawtucket  river,  (to  which 
river  his  name  has  been  transferred,)  which  afterwards 
fell  within  the  corporate  limits  of  the  ancient  Rehoboth, 
a  part  of  the  territory  of  Plymouth. 

Before  the  end  of  the  year,  five  other  vessels  arrived 
with  passengers.  The  whole  number  who  came  over 
during  this  year,  (1630,)  was  estimated  at  fifteen  hun- 
dred. 

Mr  Pynchon  settled  beyond  the  neck,  and  founded  the 
town  of  Roxbury,  and  in  the  same  year,  Cambridge,  (at 
first  called  New  Town,)  and  Medford,  (then  called  Mystic,) 
were  settled. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  201 

John  Winthrop  had  been  elected  governor  in  England  ; 
John  Humphry  deputy  governor,  who  being  at  that  time 
unable  to  come,  his  place  was  supplied  by  Thomas  Dud- 
ley ;  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Isaac  Johnson,  John  Endi- 
€0t.  Increase  Nowell,  William  Vassall,  William  Pynchon, 
Roger  Ludlow,  Edward  Rossiter,  Thomas  Sharp,  John 
Revell,  Matthew  Cradock,  Simon  Bradstreet,  Samuel 
Aldersy,  John  Venn,  Sir  Brian  Jansen,  William  Codding- 
ton,  and  Thomas  Adams,  were  elected  assistants. 

Mr  Cradock,  an  eminent  London  merchant,  Col.  Venn, 
afterwards  a  member  of  the  Long  Parliament  for  the 
city  of  London,  and  Sir  Brian  Jansen,  never  came  over. 

The  rank  and  circumstances  of  this  second  band  of 
New  England  pilgrims  were  strikingly  contrasted  with 
those  of  the  first.  From  the  time  of  the  emigration  of 
Robinson's  church  to  Holland,  in  1608,  a  period  of  twen- 
tyone  years  had  elapsed,  during  which  the  Puritans  had 
been  elevated  from  an  humble  sect,  few  in  numbers,  and 
alike  destitute  of  wealth  and  learning,  into  a  powerful 
party,  already  excited  by  the  strongest  impulses  of  politi- 
cal ambition,  inflamed  with  controversy,  and  beginning  to 
see  in  the  prospective  a  throne  in  the  dust,  and  a  monarch 
in  chains.  The  circle,  originally  so  narrow,  had  enlarged 
itself  to  such  an  extent,  that  it  threatened,  at  no  distant 
period,  to  embrace  three  powerful  kingdoms.  The  puri- 
tans were  persecuted  and  oppressed,  and  the  crown  as- 
sumed all  the  terrors  of  the  prerogative,  but  they  never 
quailed  from  the  contest,  and  so  successful  had  they  been, 
that  they  already  began  to  fee!  that  rancour  of  political 
rivalry,  which  springs  from  an  equality  of  political  power, 
and  to  look  forward  without  dread  to  the  time  when  their 
'  swords  would  be  measured  with  their  antagonists'  in  the 
field.  Their  characters  were  more  elevated,  but  their 
dispositions  were  less  kindly,  and  their  tempers  more  aus- 
26 


202  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLOxNY. 

tere,  sour,  and  domineering,  than  those  of  their  Plymouth 
brethren.  They  had  brought  themselves  to  a  positive  con- 
viction of  their  own  evangelical  purity  and  perfect  god- 
liness, and  therefore  they  tolerated  not  even  the  slightest 
difference  in  theological  opinions.  They  had  almost 
reached  that  degree  of  enthusiasm,  when,  without  regret, 
they  would  have  dragged  a  '  malignant'  to  the  scaffold, 
or  have  gone  to  it  themselves,  without  fear.  The  flowers 
of  literature  had  begun  to  bloom  amongst  the  thorns  of 
polemic  divinity,  and  rank  and  wealth  were  embraced  in 
their  connection.  Governor  Winthrop  was  a  gentleman 
of  fortune,  and  was  descended  from  a  lawyer,  eminent  in 
the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  Humphry  and  Johnson,  also 
men  of  fortune,  had  married  two  sisters,  daughters  of  the 
Earl  of  Lincoln,  the  root  of  the  present  ducal  house  of 
Newcastle.  Dudley  had  been  a  captain  of  the  English 
Auxiliaries  which  served  with  the  armies  of  Henry  IV.  of 
France.  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall  was  the  son  of  Sir 
Richard  Saltonstall,  lord-mayor  of  London,  in  1597,  who 
was  descended  from  an  ancient  and  honorable  family  in 
Yorkshire.  Novvell  was  the  nephew  of  Alexander  Nowell, 
Dean  of  St  Paul's  in  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  Vas- 
sall,  who  still  remained  an  Episcopalian,  and  Coddington, 
afterwards  a  large  proprietor  of  Barbadoes  and  of  Barbu- 
da, in  the  West  Indies,  were  men  of  family  and  fortune. 
Bradstreet  had  been  educated  at  Cambridge  university. 
Pynchon,  the  founder  of  Roxbury,  and  afterwards  of 
Springfield,  was  a  gentleman  of  extensive  learning  and 
acquirements.  Many  of  the  ministers  were  of  no  less 
consideration.  Bulkley,  the  minister  of  Concord,  was  of 
an  honorable  family  in  Bedfordshire.  Whiting,  the  min- 
ister of  Lynn,  married  a  daughter  of  Oliver  St  John,  and 
Sherman,  minister  of  Watertown,  married  a  grand- 
daughter of  the  Earl  of  Rivers.    Many  of  them  possessed 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  203 

large  estates,  and  were  accustomed  to  all  the  refinements 
of  polished  society.  Many  gentlemen  of  rank  and  for- 
tune followed  the  first  emigrants.  Sir  Henry  Vane  first 
displayed  his  wily  and  subtle  disposition,  and  his  profound 
genius  for  politics  in  the  controversies  of  Massachusetts, 
and  nothing  but  that  disastrous  fate  which  seemed  to  in- 
fluence all  the  acts  of  Charles  I.  prevented  this  humble 
colony  from  being  the  theatre  to  which  the  prodigious 
energies  of  Hampden,  Cromwell,  Hazelrig,  and  Pym 
would  have  been  confined,  for  they  had  actually  embark- 
ed, but  were  compelled  to  return  by  a  royal  order. 

The  Plymouth  Colonists  of  humbler  rank,  and  less  ex- 
cited, from  having  been  so  long  removed  from  the  scene 
of  controversy  in  England,  were  more  tolerant  and  mild) 
and  although  much  swayed  by  the  influence  of  their 
domineering  neighbors,  to  whom,  on  all  great  occasions, 
they  seemed  to  defer,  were  never  led  into  these  horrible 
excesses  of  fanaticism  which  disgrace  the  early  annals  of 
Massachusetts. 

The  subsequent  conduct  of  the  colonies  in  their  inter- 
course with  each  other, — the  arrogance  of  Massachusetts, 
and  the  profound  respect  with  which  she  was  always  treated 
by  Plymouth,  may,  in  some  degree,  be  traced  to  the  dif- 
ference of  the  colonists  of  each  in  rank,  and  wealth. 
Massachusetts  at  times  assuming  a  superiority,  was,  how- 
ever, except  on  one  or  two  occasions,  just  to  Plymouth, 
and  frequently  generous. 

In  October,  the  colonists  of  Plymouth  were  compelled 
to  endure  the  grievous  sight  of  a  public  execution. 

One  John  Billington,  a  Londoner,  a  profane  and  profli- 
gate young  man,  who  had  been  accidentally  admitted  into 
the  company,  waylaid  and  shot  John  Newcomen,  in  re- 
venge for  some  injury  or  insult. 


204  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

The  trial  was  conducted  with  great  care  and  caution^ 
Billington  was  found  guilty  both  by  the  grand  and  petit 
jury,  but  the  court  for  some  time  doubted  their  authority 
to  inflict  the  punishment  of  death,  inasmuch  as  the  coun- 
cil from  whom  their  authority  was  derived,  had  no  sachf 
power  themselves. 

The  advice  of  governor  Winthrop,  and  of  the  ablest  men 
of  Massachusetts  Bay,  was  sought,  and  it  was  the  univer- 
sal opinion  that  the  murderer  '  ought  to  die,  and  the  land 
be  purged  of  blood.'  This  was  the  first  execution  in  the 
colony. 

An  accident  happened,  which  served  to  shew  the  ex- 
treme kindness  of  feeling  which  at  this  time  prevailed 
amongst  the  Indians  towards  the  English.  Richard  Gar- 
rett and  several  others  from  Boston  were  shipwrecked  on 
Cape  Cod.  Some  of  them  died  of  their  hardships.  The 
Indians  buried  the  dead  with  much  difficulty,  the  ground 
being  hard  frozen,  and  literally  nursed  the  survivors  back 
to  life  ;  and  after  curing  and  strengthening  them,  secured 
the  remains  of  their  dead  companions  against  wild  beasts^ 
and  then  guided  them  fifty  miles  through  the  woods  to> 
Plymouth. 

^(-o,     Mr  Hatherly  and  Mr  Allerton   went  as  passengers 
in   the   White   Angel,   which    sailed   for   England, 
September  6. 

Mr  Allerton  having  lost  the  confidence  of  the  colony, 
was  no  longer  employed  as  their  agent.  The  cause  of 
their  dissatisfaction  does  not  fully  appear.  The  Ley- 
den  people  had  taken  up  some  prejudices  against  him; 
the  colony  complained  that  too  much  money  had  beers 
lavished  by  him  and  Mr  Siiirley  to  obtain  a  royal  charter. 
As  an  agent,  he  appears  to  have  been  indefatigable  in  hi* 
attempts  to  promote  the  interests  of  his  employers-      H®- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  205 

Was  a  person  of  uncommon  activity,  address,  and  enter- 
prise. He  left  the  colony,  and  it  is  supposed  that  after 
attempting  some  commercial  enterprises  at  the  eastward, 
he  resided  for  a  time  at  the  Dutch  colony  of  New  Nether- 
lands, and  afterwards  at  New  Haven,  where  it  is  supposed 
he  was  in  1653,  Governor  Hutchinson  says  that  he  finally 
returned  to  England,  and  that  his  male  posterity  settled  in 
Maryland. 

On  the  17th  of  November,  Governor  Bradford  visited 
Boston  :  —  previous  to  this  visit,  Plymouth  and  Massachu- 
setts had  been  on  the  eve  of  a  quarrel  respecting  the 
traffic  which  was  carried  on  by  the  latter  for  corn  with 
the  Indians  on  Cape  Cod.  The  governor  of  Plymouth 
finding  the  Salem  pinnace  driven  into  Plymouth  harbor 
by  distress,  and  laden  with  corn  which  had  been  purchas- 
ed of  the  natives,  forbade  the  traffic,  which  he  declared 
he  was  determined  to  interrupt  by  force,  if  they  persisted. 
A  correspondence  took  place  between  the  Governors,  and 
after  this  visit  to  Boston,  the  dispute  subsided. 

.^„„  In  April,  Massasoiet  who  was  now  called  Ossame- 
quin,*  having  been  assaulted  by  the  Narragansetts, 
fled  for  refuge  to  an  English  house  at  Sowams.  Intelli- 
gence of  this  having  been  received  at  Plymouth,  Standish 
was  immediately  despatched  thither.  There  being  but 
three  Englishmen  in  the  house,  Standish  sent  a  messenger 
to  Plymouth  to  urge  the  governor  to  send  a  force  instantly, 
and  ammunition  and  provisions  sufficient  to  enable  them 
to  hold  out,  as  they  were  apprehensive  that  Caunonicus 
the  great  sachem  of  the  Narragansetts,  would  attack  them 
with  all  his  force.  There  being  no  ammunition  at  that 
time  at  Plymouth,  application  was  made  to  Governor  Win- 
throp,  who  sent  a  messenger  on  foot,  (there   being  then 

*  The  Indians  frequently  changed  their  names. 


206  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

but  few  horses  in  New  England)  who  carried  27  pounds 
taken  from  the  governor's  own  store. —  But  the  Narragan- 
setts  having  learned  that  the  Pequots  had  attacked  their 
country,  retired  from  Sowams  without  doing  any  injury. 
It  is  not  a  little  surprising  that  this  act  of  Governor  Win- 
throp  was  afterwards  urged  against  him  as  an  offence  by 
Dudley,  the  deputy  governor  of  Massachusetts.  During 
the  year  suspicions  were  again  excited  respecting  a  con- 
spiracy amongst  the  Indians,  but  they  soon  died  away. 

On  the  5th  of  June,  Edward  Winslow  arrived  at  Boston 
from  England.  Mr  Hatherly  also  arrived  in  the  course  of 
the  month  with  a  view  to  remain  in  the  country. 

Allerton  now  inimical  to  Plymouth,  formed  a  trading 
company,  hired  the  White  Angel  of  Mr  Shirley,  and  at- 
tempted to  establish  a  rival  house  on  the  Kennebeck  river. 
He  also  attempted  to  deprive  Plymouth  of  the  trade  at 
Penobscot,  by  establishing  another  house  there,  but  the 
French  in  1633  attacked  the  house  at  Penobscot,  killed 
two  of  his  men,  despoiled  them  of  all  their  goods  and 
sent  the  remainder  prisoners  to  France. 

This  year  the  colonies  of  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth 
fell  into  some  trouble  by  reason  of  a  petition  to  the  King 
and  council,  from  Sir  Christopher  Gardner,  Thomas  Mor- 
ton, and  Philip  Ratcliff,*  who  were  instigated  as  it  was 
supposed,  by  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  and  Captain  Mason, 
who  were  desirous  of  having  a  general  government  estab- 
lished over  New  England. 

Gardner  was  a  man  of  rank,  (he  had  been  created  a 
knight  of  the  holy  sepulchre  at  Jerusalem,)  allied  to  the 
celebrated  Gardner,  bishop  of  Winchester,  and  a  con- 
cealed papist. 

*  Ratcliff  had  been  a  servant  of  Mr  Cradock,  and  had  suffered  punishment 
at  Boston ;  whipping,  loss  of  ears,  and  banishment,  for  his  invectives  against 
the  churches  and  government. —  Winthrop's  Journal. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  207 

He  came  first  into  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  attended 
by  one  or  two  servants,  and  pretended  that  he  had  for- 
saken the  world,  and  desired  to  lead  a  godly  life  in  privacy 
and  retirement,  and  disdained  no  employment  however 
humble.  He  made  application  to  several  churches  to  be 
admitted  as  a  member,  but  having  with  him  a  '  comely 
young  woman,'  whom  he  called  his  cousin,  but  who  was 
suspected  to  be  his  mistress,  they  refused  him. 

Having  been  accused  of  having  two  wives  in  England, 
the  government  of  Massachusetts  endeavored  to  appre- 
hend him,  but  hearing  of  the  accusation,  he  escaped  into 
the  jurisdiction  of  Plymouth,  and  there  lived  awhile 
amongst  the  Indians.  The  Namasket  Indians  with  whom 
he  lived,  gave  information  of  his  residence  to  Governor 
Bradford,  and  he  authorised  them  to  take  him  and  to  con- 
vey him  to  Plymouth,  but  expressly  forbade  them  to  do  him 
any  injury.  They  finding  a  favorable  opportunity,  seized 
and  bound,  him  and  conducted  him  to  the  governor,  by 
whom  he  was  kindly  used.*  Governor  Winthrop  was 
informed  of  his  apprehension,  and  he  caused  him  to  be 
brought  to  Boston  as  a  prisoner,  and  immediately  sent 
him  to  England,  but  directed  that  he  should  be  treated 
respectfully  on  account  of  his  quality. 

In  the  petition  both  colonies  were  charged  with  intended 
rebellion.  It  was  alleged  that  they  had  cast  oflT  their  al- 
legiance, '  and  meant  to  be  wholly  separate  from  the 
church  and  laws  of  England,  and  that  their  ministers  and 

*  The  Indians  discovering  him  near  a  river,  set  upon  him  ;  but  reaching  a 
canoe  which  lay  in  the  stream,  he  stood  on  the  defensive,  and  being  armed  with 
a  muslcet  and  rapier,  kept  them  at  bay  ;  the  current  however,  dashing  his  canoe 
against  a  rock  it  was  upset,  and  he  lost  both  gun  and  rapier  in  the  water.  He 
then  drew  a  small  dagger,  and  the  Indians  unwillitig  to  injure  him,  or  to  receive 
injury  from  him,  would  not  close  with  him,  but  seiziug  some  long  poles  beat  his 
dagger  out  of  his  hands,  and  he  yielded. 


208  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUEH  COLONY. 

people  did  continually  rail  against  the  state,  the   church, 
and  the  bishops.' 

Mr  Cradock,  together  with  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  and 
Mr  Humphrey,  who  were  then  in  England,  were  called 
before  the  council  to  answer  ,the  accusation,  which  they 
did  in  writing.  So  satisfactory  was  their  defence,  that 
the  committee  of  the  council  reported  both  to  the  lords 
and  the  king  so  much  in  commendation  of  the  colonies, 
that  King  Charles  was  pleased  to  say,  '  that  he  would  have 
them  severely  punished  who  did  abuse  his  government  and 
plantation.'  The  defendants  were  dismissed  with  a  favor- 
able order  for  their  encouragement.* — And  they  were  also 

*  At  the  court  at  Whitehall,  January  19,  1632. 

Sigillum  Crescent  Lord  Cottington 

Lord  Privy  Seal  Mr  Treasurer 

Earl  of  Dorset  Mr  Vice  Chamberlain 

Lord  Viscount  Falkland  Mr  Secretary  Cook 

Lord  Bishop  of  London  Mr  Secretary  Windebank. 

Whereas  his  majesty  hath  lately  feeen  informed  of  great  distraction  and  much 
disorder  in  the  plantations  in  the  parts  of  America  called  New  England,  which 
if  they  be  true,  and  suffered  to  run  on,  would  tend  to  the  dishonor  of  this  king- 
dom, and  utter  ruin  of  that  plantation;  for  prevention  whereof,  and  for  the  or- 
derly settling  of  government,  according  to  the  intention  of  those  patents  which 
have  been  granted  by  his  Majesty,  and  from  his  late  royal  father  King  James  ; 
it  hath  pleased  his  majesty  that  the  lords  and  others  of  his  most  honorable  privy 
council  should  take  the  same  into  consideration ;  their  lordships  in  the  first  places 
thought  fit  to  make  a  committee  of  this  board,  to  take  examination  of  the  matters 
informed ;  which  committee  having  called  divers  of  the  principal  adventurers 
in  that  plantation,  and  heard  those  that  are  complainants  against  them  ;  most  of 
the  things  informed  being  denied,  and  resting  to  be  proved  by  parties  that  must 
be  called  from  that  place,  which  required  along  expense  of  time,  and  at  present 
their  lordships  finding  they  were  upon  despatch  of  men,  victuals,  and  merchan- 
dize for  that  place,  all  which  would  be  at  a  stand  if  the  adventurers  should  have 
discouragement,  or  take  suspicion  that  the  state  here  had  no  good  opinion  of  that 
plantation ;  their  lordships  not  laying  the  fault  or  fancies  (if  any  be)  of  some 
particular  men  upon  the  general  government  or  principal  adventurers,  which 
in  due  time  is  to  be  inquired  into;  have  thought  fit,  in  the  mean  time,  to  declare 
that  the  appearances  were  so  fair,  and  hopes  so  great,  that  the  country  would 
prove  both  beneficial  to  the  kingdom,  and  profitable  to  the  particulars,  as  that  the 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 


209 


assured  by  some  of  the  council  that  his  majesty  *  did  not 
intend  to  impose  the  ceremonies  of  the  church  of  England 
upon  them,'  for  it  was  considered  that  the  freedom  of 
religion  .was  one  of  the  principal  causes  of  emigration  to 
New  England,  and  that  it  was  a  favorite  object  of  the 
government  to  strengthen  New  England,  because  if  the 
Baltic  was  closed  against  England,  their  masts  and  cordage 
must  come  from  New  England. 

■i^cyc.  At  the  annual  election,  Governor  Bradford,  having 
now  been  chosen  to  the  office  of  governor  twelve 
years  in  succession,  desirous  of  being  relieved  from  its 
cares,  importuned  the  people  with  so  much  earnestness, 
that  they  consented  to  release  him,  and  Edward  Winslow 
was  chosen  his  successor. 

Bradford  was  chosen  the  first  assistant  or  deputy  gover- 
nor, and  the  number  of  assistants  was  increased  from  five 
to  seven.  Capt.  Standish,  John  Howland,  John  Alden, 
John  Doane,  Stephen  Hopkins,  and  William  Gilson,  were 
also  elected  assistants. 

A  singular  law  had  been  enacted  in  the  preceding  year, 
(1632.)  Any  person  chosen  to  the  office  of  governor, 
and  refusing  it,  was  to  be  fined  £20  ;  a  counsellor  or 
magistrate  chosen,  and  refusing  the  office,  was  to  be 
fined  £10. 

This  year  was  remarkable  for  an  invasion  of  locusts, 
(probably  grasshoppers,)  who,  emerging  from  the  earth, 
destroyed  every  green  thing  before  them. 

adventurers  had  cause  to  go  on  cheerfully  with  their  undertakings,  and  rest  as- 
sured, if  things  were  carried  as  was  pretended  when  the  patents  were  granted, 
and  accordingly  as  by  the  patents  it  is  appointed,  his  majesty  would  not  only 
maintain  the  liberties  and  privileges  heretofore  granted,  but  supply  anything 
further  that  might  tend  to  the  good  government,  prosperity,  and  comfort  of  his 
people  there  of  that  place,  &c. 

William  Trumball. 
27 


2 JO  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

About  this  time,  the  disputes  with  the  Dutch  respect- 
ing the  trade  of  Connecticut  river,  commenced. 

The  Dutch,  in  their  trading  intercourse  with  Plymouth, 
had  communicated  some  information  of  a  fine  river,  which 
extended  far  into  the  country,  to  which  they  had  given 
the  name  of  Fresh  river,  but  which  was  called  by  the 
natives,  Quonektacut.  They  represented  the  lands  which 
lay  upon  the  river  as  well  adapted  to  planting,  and  the 
river  as  convenient  for  trade,  and  they  urged  the  people 
of  Plymouth,  with  much  earnestness,  to  commence  a 
trading  intercourse  with  the  natives  ;  but  not  being  will- 
ing, at  that  time,  to  extend  the  sphere  of  their  commer- 
cial operations,  they  neglected  the  advice. 

The  Dutch  then  being  feeble  in  strength  and  few  in 
numbers,  probably  reckoned  upon  the  assistance  of  the 
English,  should  they  become  involved  in  any  serious  diffi- 
culties with  the  natives. 

Some  Indians  who  dwelled  upon  this  river,  being  driven 
■from  their  homes  by  the  Pequots,  who  usurped  their  lands, 
solicited  the  English  with  much  entreaty,  to  establish  a 
trading  house  there,  in  the  hope  that  through  their  inter- 
vention they  might  be  restored  to  their  homes. 

The  people  of  Plymouth  were  induced  to  fit  and  send 
out  some  trading  expeditions  to  this  place,  and  they  found 
the  representations  of  the  Dutch  and  the  Indians  to  be 
true.  They  had  great  success  in  their  traffic,  but  still 
were  unwilling  to  venture  upon  the  establishment  of  a 
trading  house. 

The  Indians  who  had  been  expelled,  anxious  to  be 
restored,  then  solicited  the  government  of  Massachusetts 
to  undertake  the  same  enterprise,  but  their  solicitations 
were  not  heeded  by  the  governor.  Some  of  the  principal 
individuals  of  Massachusetts,  however,  having  some  in- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  gH 

clination  to  engage  in  this  enterprise,  proposed  to  the 
people  of  Plymouth  a  conference  at  Boston,  to  agree  upon 
the  terms  of  a  copartnership. 

A  distinct  proposition  Jiaving  been  submitted  at  this 
meeting,  that  a  trading  house  should  be  established  on. 
this  river  to  anticipate  the  Dutch, — to  shew  that  this, 
proposition  was  inexpedient,  it  was  urged  that  the  country 
was  inhabited  by  three  or  four  thousand  warlike  Indians  ; 
that  the  mouth  of  the  river  was  made  difficult  of  access 
by  a  bar ;  and  that  for  seven  months  in  a  year  it  was  not 
free  from  ice.  Discouraged  by  these  representations,  the 
agents  on  the  part  of  Massachusetts  became  indifferent, 
and  declared  themselves  unwilling  to  engage  in  the  pro- 
ject. Upon  hearing  this,  Governor  Winslow  and  Governor 
Bradford  expressed  a  determination  to  persevere,  and  at 
the  same  time  a  hope,  that  inasmuch  as  they  were  un- 
willing to  adventure  without  their  approbation,  they  should 
not  incur  the  displeasure  of  their  brethren  of  Massachu- 
setts, if  they  attempted  the  enterprise  with  their  own 
means,  and  received  from  the  agents  of  Massachusetts 
the  strongest  assurances  of  consent  and  approbation. 

The  Dutch,  upon  learning  this  determination  of  the 
people  of  Plymouth,  repented  of  their  previous  invitations, 
and  now  thinking  themselves  sufficiently  strong  for  self- 
defence,  resolved  to  anticipate  and  to  prevent  them  from 
pursuing  this  undertaking.  For  this  purpose,  they  forth- 
with despatched  an  expedition,  which  reached  the  mouth 
of  the  river  a  short  time  previous  to  the  arrival  of  the 
English,  and  going  up  the  river,  their  troops  were  disem- 
barked at  the  place  afterwards  called  Hartford.  A  house 
was  hastily  erected,  and  fortified  with  two  pieces  of  ord- 
nance, and  the  Dutch  gave  out  that  they  intended  to 
dispute  the  passage  of  the  English  up  the  river. 


212  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

The  English  adventurers  having  been  ordered  to  seat 
themselves  on  the  river  above  the  Dutch,  prepared  the 
frame  of  a  house,  and  putting  it  on  board  their  bark  vi^ith 
the  necessary  materials  to  put  it  together,  and  taking  with 
them  the  Indians  who  had  been  expelled  from  Nattawa- 
nute,*  (at  which  place  they  intended  to  establish  them- 
selves,) proceeded  up  the  river,  in  despite  both  of  the 
Dutch  and  the  hostile  Indians.  The  expedition  was  com- 
manded by  Lieutenant  Holmes. 

When  they  reached  the  spot  where  the  Dutch  had 
raised  their  national  flag,  they  were  hailed  and  questioned 
as  to  their  intentions  and  destination.  They  replied  that 
their  destination  was  up  the  river,  where  they  intended 
to  trade.  They  were  ordered  to  stop  or  to  strike,  and 
were  threatened  in  case  of  disobedience  with  an  attack, 
to  which  they  replied  that  they  acted  by  the  direction  of 
the  governor  of  Plymouth,  and  that  his  order  should  be 
obeyed  at  every  risk, —  they  had  no  intention  to  molest 
the  Dutch,  but  they  *  would  go  on.'  The  Dutch  did  not 
think  proper  to  come  to  extremities,  but  suffered  them  to 
pass.  They  proceeded  about  a  mile  and  then  disem- 
barked, erected  their  house,  which  they  fortified,  landed 
their  provisions,  and  sent  their  bark  home. 

Intelligence  of  this  affair  was  immediately  sent  to  Man- 
hattan.f  A  company  of  seventy  men,  well  armed,  was 
despatched  forthwith  to  dispossess  the  English.  They 
proceeded  against  the  fort  at  Nattawanute  in  hostile  array, 
with  their  colors  flying,  but  apprehending  the  strength  of 
the  English  to  be  greater  than  it  really  was,  they  came  to 
a  parley,  and  returned  without  committing  hostilities. 
The  Dutch  had  no  rightful  claim  to  the  lands  at  Natta- 

*  Afterwards  called  Windsor.  f  New  York. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  ojg 

wanute,  for  the  English,  at  the  solicitation  of  the  original 
native  owners,  had  purchased  them  at  a  fair  price.  Never- 
theless, their  conduct  was  not,  by  any  means,  marked 
with  that  degree  of  violence  and  injustice  towards  the 
people  of  Plymouth,  as  was  the  subsequent  conduct  of 
their  puritan  brethren  of  Massachusetts. 

In  the  summer  of  1635,  some  of  the  people  of  Dorches- 
ter in  that  colony,  emigrated  to  the  Connecticut  river, 
and  seated  themselves  on  the  lands  claimed  by  Ply- 
mouth, near  the  fort.  Governor  Bradford  complained  of 
their  injustice,  as  the  lands  there  had  been  obtained  by 
fair  purchase,  which  was  followed  by  occupancy  and  pos- 
session, and  their  claim  had  been  strengthened  by  their 
resistance  to  the  pretensions  of  the  Dutch ;  but  notwith- 
standing they  had  been  more  injuriously  treated  by  their 
Massachusetts  brethren  than  by  the  Indians  or  Dutch, 
by  whom  they  had  never  been  molested  after  they  had 
made  their  establisment  permanent.  After  repeated  un- 
successful remonstrances.  Governor  Winslow  visited  Boston 
in  person  to  claim  redress.  Plymouth,  averse  to  a  quarrel, 
offered  to  accept  a  sixteenth  part  of  the  lands  and  £100 
as  a  full  compensation,  but  such  was  the  encroaching  and 
domineering  spirit  of  Massachusetts,  that  even  this  imper- 
fect justice  was  refus^ed ;  but  the  equity  of  the  Plymouth 
claim  was  so  apparent,  that  Massachusetts  was  afterwards 
induced  to  give  them  £50,  Plymouth  retaining  forty  acres 
of  meadow  or  interval  land  and  a  large  tract  of  upland, 
with  which  this  large  and  just  claim  was  finally  quieted. 
Massachusetts,  sensible  of  her  own  injustice,  could  offer 
no  reasonable  objection  to  the  claim  of  Plymouth,  yet  for 
a  long  ^time  was  it  resisted,  and  was  not  finally  compro- 
mised until  many  years  had  elapsed. 


214  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

During  this  year,  Plymouth  was  attacked  with  an  infec- 
tious fever,-  of  which  twenty  men  and  women,  (besides 
children,)  died.  Amongst  them  was  Samuel  Fuller,  their 
physician  and  surgeon,  and  a  deacon  of  the  church, 
a  man  of  great  practical  usefulness.  Thomas  Blossom, 
one  of  the  Leyden  church,  died. 

William  Collier,  one  of  the  adventurers  and  a  great 
benefactor  to  the  colony,  came  over,  and  was  immediately 
employed  in  affairs  of  trust. 

^^r,A  Thomas  Prince  was  chosen  governor,  Bradford 
was  elected  first  assistant  or  deputy  governor.  Mr 
Doane  and  Mr  Gilson  were  not  re-elected  assistants.  Mr 
Doane  supplied  the  place  of  Dr  Fuller  as  deacon  of  the 
church.  Governor  Winslow  and  Mr  Collier  succeeded 
them  as  assistants  ;  the  other  assistants  were  re-elected. 
The  Indians  during  this  year  were  sorely  afflicted  with  the 
small  pox,  of  which  great  numbers  died. 

One  Captain  Stone,  a  West  Indian  of  St  Christopher's, 
by  intoxicating  the  governor  of  the  Dutch  fort  on  Con- 
necticut river,  obtained  his  leave  to  take  a  Plymouth 
bark  which  was  lying  there  at  anchor.  The  merchant 
and  most  of  the  men  being  on  shore,  he  succeeded,  and 
after  weighing  her  anchor,  set  sail  for  Virginia,  but  some 
Dutch  sailors  who  had  received  kind  treatment  at  Ply- 
mouth discovering  his  design,  pursued  him  with  two  ves- 
sels, and  recaptured  the  bark. 

Stone  afterwards  going  to  Massachusetts,  was  served 
with  a  process,  and  for  the  purpose  of  a  compromise,  he 
went  to  Plymouth.  In  a  dispute  with  the  governor  he  was 
so  transported   with  rage,  that  he  attempted  to  stab  him, 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  215 

but  was  prevented  by  the  vigilance  of  the  governor's  at- 
tendants.* 

Another  act  of  violence  was  perpetrated  at  Kennebeck, 
within  the  limits  of  the  Plymouth  patent.  A  pinnace 
belonging  to  Lord  Say  and  Sele,  and  commanded  by  one 
Hocking,  sailed  from  Piscataqua  into  the  Kennebeck,  and 
he  attempted  to  pass  up  the  river  for  the  purpose  of  tra- 
ding with  the  natives.  Two  of  the  magistrates  of  Plymouth 
being  there,  forbade  him  ;  he  persisted,  and  declaring  that 
he  would  go  up  and  trade  with  the  natives  in  despite  of 
them,  and  '  lye  there  as  long  as  he  pleased,'  went  on. 

The  Plymouth  men  pursued  him  in  a  boat,  and  after 
entreating  him  to  depart,  and  receiving  nothing  but  '  ill 
words'  and  positive  refusals,  finding  his  pinnace  at  anchor, 
two  of  them, went  in  a  canoe,  cut  one  of  the  cables  and 
attempted  to  cut  the  other  ;  Hocking  threatened  to  shoot 
them ;  they  defied  him,  and  persisted  ;  he  fired,  and  killed 
one.  The  pinnace  having  come  up  with  five  or  six  men 
on  board,  they  fired  on  Hocking  and  killed  him. 

At  the  general  court  at  Boston,  (May  15,j  upon  com- 
plaint of  a  kinsman  of  Hocking,  John  Alden,  one  of  the 
Plymouth  magistrates  present  at  this  transaction,  (then  in 
Boston,)  was  arrested  and  held  to  bail,  '  and  withal  (says 
Governor  Winthrop,)  we  wrote  to  Plymouth  to  certify 
them  what  we  had  done,  and  to  know  whether  they  would 
do  justice  in  the  cause,  (as  belonging  to  their  jurisdiction) 

*  Some  time  after  the  commission  of  this  outrage,  while  lying  in  Connecticut 
river,  in  his  vessel,  asleep  in  the  cabin,  he  together  with  one  Capt.  Norton  were 
assailed  hy  the  Indians,  and  both  were. killed.  Norton  defended  himself  with 
great  resolution,  but  having  Set  out  some  powder  on  a  table,  it  accidentally  took 
fire  and  exploded,  by  which  he  was  blinded  and  fell  a  prey  to  his  assailants,  who 
then  succeeded  in  plundering  the  vessel.  The  murderers  escaping,  were 
harbored  by  the  Pequot  Indians,  and  this  was  one  of  the  causes  of  the  subse- 
quent war  with  that  tribe. 


216  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

and  to  have  a  speedy  answer,'  &c.  '  This  we  did,  (con- 
tinues the  governor,)  that  notice  might  be  taken,  that 
we  did  disavow  the  said  action,  which  was  much  con- 
demned of  all  men,  and  which  was  feared  would  give 
occasion  to  the  king  to  send  a  general  governor  over  ; 
and  besides  had  brought  us  all  and  the  gospel  under  a 
common  reproach  of  cutting  one  another's  throats  for 
beaver.' 

Governor  Bradford,  Governor  Winslow,  and  Mr  Smith, 
the  pastor  of  Plymouth,  held  a  conference  at  Boston  with 
some  of  the  magistrates  and  ministers  of  Massachusetts 
(amongst  whom  were  Governor  Winthrop,  Mr  Cotton,  and 
Mr  Wilson,)  concerning  this  transaction.  After  they  '  had 
sought  the  Lord,'  they  commenced  the  discussion.  The 
cause  of  Plymouth  was  defended  with  much  ability. — 
The  question  involved  their  right  of  exclusive  trade. — The 
Plymouth  conferees  contended  that  for  this,  they  not  only 
had  the  king's  grant,  '  but  they  had  taken  up  this  place  as 
vacuum  domicilium,  and  so  had  continued  without  inter- 
ruption or  claim  of  any  of  the  natives  for  divers  years.' 
They  also  strongly  urged  that  the  trade  to  the  Kennebeck 
had  been  created  by  them,  inasmuch,  as  they  had  intro- 
duced ivampumpeage  as  an  article  of  traffic,  the  use  of 
which  in  commerce,  they  had  been  the  first  to  discover 
and  improve.  Admitting  that  their  servant  did  kill 
Hocking,  it  was  done  in  self  defence,  and  to  save  the 
lives  of  others  v^hom  he  would  have  killed,  '  yet,  they 
acknowledged,  that  they  did  hold  themselves  under  guilt 
of  the  breach  of  the  sixth  commandment,  in  that  they  did 
hazard  man's  life  for  such  a  cause,  and  did  not  rather  wait 
to  preserve  their  rights  by  other  means,  which  they  rather 
acknowledged,  because  they  wished  it  were  not  done  ; 
and  hereafter  they  would  be  careful  to  prevent  the  like.' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  217 

Governor  Dudley,  and  Governor  Winthrop  both  inter- 
ested themselves  in  the  exculpation  of  Plymouth,  and  to 
effect  it,  wrote  friendly  and  interceding  letters  to  England. 
Afterwards  Governor  Bradford  and  Mr  Collier  visited 
Boston  on  this  affair,  and  wrote  an  ample  account  of  it  to 
Mr  Wiggin,  the  overseer  at  Piscataqua. 

Lord  Say  and  Sele,  and  Lord  Brook,  who  were  inter- 
ested in  the  plantation  at  Piscataqua,  at  first  were  much 
exasperated  with  Plymouth,  but  learning  the  exact  truth 
were  pacified. 

It  is  not  a  little  remarkable,  that  the  arrogant  spirit  of 
Massachusetts  should  have  displayed  itself  in  such  early 
infancy.  Endicot  indeed  had  deported  himself  somewhat 
arbitrarily  at  its  very  birth,  by  attacking  Morton  at  Merry 
Mount,  but  JNIorton  was  considered  as  an  outlaw. — But 
that  a  magistrate  of  the  colony  of  Plymouth  should  be 
arrested  while  at  Boston  on  his  own  concerns,  and  held  to 
bail,  for  an  offence  committed  within  the  jurisdiction  of 
Plymouth,  and  that  two  conspicuous  characters  (both  hav- 
ing been  governors  of  the  colony)  and  the  minister,  should 
have  been  obliged  to  visit  Boston  to  defend  their  people 
against  a  charge,  of  which,  Massachusetts  then  a  govern- 
ment of  scarcely  four  years  standing,  had  no  more  juris- 
diction than  Virginia,  almost  'passes  comprehension.' 
The  governor  of  Massachusetts,  however,  appears  to  have 
conducted  equitably,  and  no  other  injustice  was  done  to 
Plymouth,  than  to  arrest  one  of  their  magistrates  without 
the  authority  of  law.  The  government  of  Plymouth 
generally  sensitive  as  to  their  rights  and  dignity,  appear 
always  to  have  succumbed  to  Massachusetts,  through  fear 
perhaps  of  the  strong  influence  which  Massachusetts  could 
make  in  England  through  the  instrumentality  of  her 
leading  men,  who,  were  connected  in  England  with  per- 
sons of  high  rank. 

28 


218  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Plymouth  now  transacted  a  large  trade  with  the  Dutch 
at  New  Netherlands,  and  with  the  natives  of  Kennebeck, 
and  Connecticut  river.  At  Kennebeck  they  exchanged 
the  wampum  which  they  obtained  at  Connecticut,  for 
beaver,  of  which  they  shipped  to  England  twenty  hogs- 
heads.* 

iccyr  William  Bradford  was  again  called  to  the  chair, 
and  Edward  Winslow  was  elected  first  assistant,  or 
deputy  governor.  Governor  Prince  was  chosen  an  assis- 
tant, and  the  other  assistants  were  all  reelected. 

Winslow  again  visited  England  as  the  agent  of  the 
colony,  and  rendered  good  service  to  Massachusetts, 
against  whom,  complaints  had  been  exhibited. 

A  trading  house  belonging  to  Plymouth  at  Penobscot 
was  captured  by  the  French,  who  took  the  goods,  and  gave 
bills  on  France  for  the  payment.  The  governor  des- 
patched a  vessel  under  the  command  of  Mr  Girling,  to 
dispossess  the  French,  but  the  latter  having  notice  of 
the  intended  attack,  prepared  for  defence,  and  refused  to 
surrender.  Application  was  then  made  to  Massachusetts 
for  assistance  ;  their  general  court  agreed  to  assist  Plym- 
outh both  with  men  and  munitions,  but  required  that  one 
duly  authorized  should  be  sent  to  treat  with  them  as  to  the 
terms  on  which  their  assistance  was  to  be  rendered. 
'  Resolving  (says  Governor  Winthrop)  to  drive  them  out, 
whatsoever  it  should   cost,  (yet   first  to  put  them  to  bear 

*  Governor  Winslow  while  on  a  trading  excursion  from  Connecticut  to  Nar- 
ragansett,  left  his  bark  at  the  latter  place,  meaning  to  go  to  Plymouth  by  land. 
Ossamequin  (Massasoiet)  offered  to  be  his  guide,  but  he  despatched  a  messenger 
to  Plymouth  to  inform  the  people  that  the  governor  was  c'ead.  This  intelli- 
gence occasioned  much  grief  and  alarm.  The  next  day  appearing  with  the 
governor  at  Plymouth,  he  excused  himself  for  the  falsehood  by  saying  that  he 
knew  that  the  belief  of  his  death  would  make  him  more  welcome  when  it  was 
ascertained  that  he  was  alive. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  219 

the  charge  if  it  might  be  ;)  for  we  saw  their  neighborhood 
would  be  very  dangerous  to  us.' 

Governor  Prince  and  Captain  Standish  on  the  part  of 
Plymouth,  meeting  the  commissioners  of  Massachusetts, 
insisted  that  the  dislodgment  of  the  French  was  an 
affair  of  as  much  interest  to  the  latter  colony  as  to  Ply- 
mouth, and  that  it  was  but  just  that  the  expense  of  the  ex- 
pedition should  be  equally  borne  by  the  two  colonies. 
The  Massachusetts  commissioners  insisting  that  the  whole 
expense  should  be  borne  by  Plymouth,  the  negotiation 
terminated. 

In  the  summer  of  this  year,  a  settlement  was  made  on 
Connecticut  river  by  people  who  emigrated  from  Dor- 
chester in  Massachusetts,  as  has  already  been  related. 

Tradition  says  that  some  from  Watertown  had  settled  at 
Pyquag,  (Wethersfield)  the  winter  before.  Mr  Warham 
the  minister  of  Dorchester  followed. 

Mr  Hooker  the  minister  of  Cambridge,  who  had  pro- 
jected the  settlement,  Mr  Stone,  and  about  one  hundred 
men,  women,  and  children,  settled  at  Newtown,  (after- 
wards Hartford)  the  succeeding  year  1636. 

The  fathers  of  Connecticut  were  John  Haynes,  who  had 
been  governor  of  Massachusetts,  Roger  Ludlow,  Mr 
Hooker,  and  Mr  Warham,  the  ministers  of  Cambridge  and 
Dorchester,  Mr  Henry  Wolcot,   and  Mr  Thomas  Wells, 

also  ministers,  Edward  Hopkins,  George  Wyllys, 

Whiting,  William  Phelps,  Thomas  Webster,  Captain  John 

Mason,  William  Swain,  John  Talcott,  John  Steel, 

Mitchei,  Thurston  Rayner,   Henry  Smith,  Andrew  Ward, 
and  John  Deming. 

About  the  time  that  the  settlements  commenced  up  the 
river,  John  Winthrop,  junior,  son  of  the  governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, under  a  commission  from  Lord  Say  and  Sele, 
and  Lord   Brook,  commenced  a  settlement  at  its  mouth, 


220  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

which,  from  the  names  of  the  patrons,  was  called  Say- 
brook.  David  Gardner,  and  John  Davenport,  actively 
engaged  in  this  project.* 

*  On  the  15th  of  August^  Plymouth  was  visited  by  a  tremendous  storm  or 
hurricane,  unparalleled  until  that  of  September,  1815.  Morton  says  •  It  began 
in  the  morning  a  little  before  day,  and  grew  not  by  degrees,  but  came  with 
great  violence  from  the  beginning,  to  the  great  amazement  of  many  ;  It  blew 
down  sundry  houses,  and  uncovered  divers  others  :  divers  vessels  were  lost  at 
sea  in  it,  and  many  more  were  in  extreme  danger.  It  caused  the  sea  to  swell 
in  some  places  to  the  southward  of  Plymouth,  as  that  it  rose  to  twenty  feet  right 
up  and  down,  and  made  many  of  the  Indians  to  climb  into  the  trees  for  safety. 
It  threw  down  all  the  corn  to  the  ground,  which  never  rose  more,  and  the  which 
through  the  mercy  of  God,  it  being  near  the  harvest  time,  was  not  lost,  though 
much  the  worse  ;  and  had  the  wind  continued  without  stifling,  in  likelihood  it 
would  have  drowned  some  part  of  the  country.  It  blew  down  many  hundreds 
thousands  of  trees,  turning  up  the  stronger  by  the  roots,  and  breaking  the  high 
pine  trees  and  such  hke,  in  the  midst,  and  the  tall  young  oaks,  and  walnut  trees 
of  good  bigness,  were  wound  as  withes  by  it,  very  strange  and  fearful  to  behold. 
It  began  in  the  southeast,  and  veered  sundry  ways,  but  the  greatest  force  of  it 
at  Plymouth,  was  from  the  former  quarter,  it  continued  not  in  extremity  above 
five  or  six  hours  before  the  violence  of  it  began  to  abate  ;  the  marks  of  it  will 
remain  this  many  years,  in  those  parts  where  it  was  forest.  The  moon  suffered 
a  great  eclipse  two  nights  after  it.' 


(       221        ) 


CHAPTER  XL 

Edward  Winslovv  again  elected  governor. — Settlement  of  Providence,  Ports- 
mouth, and  Newport,  in  Rhode  Island,  who  receive  a  Charter  from  the  Par- 
liament of  England. — Review  of  the  Laws  and  Usages  of  the  Pl}'mouth 
Colony. — The  fundamental  Laws  of  that  Colony  established  in  1636. 

j^^^  Mr  Winslow  having  returned  from  England,  was 
again  elected  governor,  and  Bradford  first  assistant 
or  deputy  governor.  The  other  assistants  were  Governor 
Prince,  William  Collier,  John  Alden,  Timothy  Hatherly, 
John  Brown,  and  Stephen  Hopkins. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  preceding  year,  Roger  Wil- 
liams, driven  from  Salem  by  the  intolerance  and  persecu- 
tions of  the  government  of  Massachusetts,  fled  toSeekonk,* 
but  this  place  being  within  the  limits  of  the  Plymouth 
jurisdiction,  and  the  people  of  that  colony  being  unwilling 
to  embroil  themselves  with  Massachusetts,  governor  Wins- 
low  informed  him  with  much  friendliness  of  the  difficulty 
which  was  apprehended,  ai^d  advised  him  to  occupy  a 
spot  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  which  was  without 
the  limits  of  either  jurisdiction.  Williams  thus  driven 
both  from  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts,  and  '  utterly  for- 
lorn,' crossed  the  river,  and  threw  himself  upon  the  mercy 
of  Caunonicus,  the  ruling  sachem  of  the  Narragansetts. 
From  this  savage  chief,  that  generosity  and  kindness 
which  was  denied  him  by  his  countrymen,  he   received. 

*  Afterwards  Rehohoth,  but  now,  by  a  division  of  the  town,  the  ancient 
name  is  restored. 


222  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Caunonicus  not  only  permitted  Williams  and  the  wretched 
wanderers  who  had  followed  him  from  Salem  to  have  a 
resting  place  in  his  domain,  but  he  gave  them  all  '  the 
neck  of  land  lying  between  the  mouths  of  Pawtucket  and 
Moshasuck  rivers,  that  they  might  set  down  in  peace  upon 
it,  and  enjoy  it  forever.'  Here,  with  John  Throckmorton, 
William  Arnold,  William  Harris,  Stukley  Wescot,  John 
Greene,  Thomas  Olney,  Richard  Waterman,  Thomas 
James,  Robert  Cole,  William  Carpenter,  Francis  Weston, 
and  Ezekiel  Holliman,  who  had  accompanied  him  in  his 
flight  from  Salem,  he  founded,  in  the  early  part  of  1636, 
another  New  England  colony,  and  called  it  Providence. 
Here  he  formed  his  associates  into  a  church,  and  divided 
the  lands  with  which  he  had  been  endowed  by  Caunonicus 
equally  amongst  them,  and  now,  although  independent, 
still  pursuing  his  principles  of  universal  toleration,  he  at- 
tracted the  discontented  of  the  neighboring  colonies  of 
Plymouth  and  Massachusetts,  and  many  were  added  to  his 
church.* 

Soon  after  his  settlement,  he  purchased  of  Caunonicus, 
almost  the  whole  of  the  territory  now  comprised  within 
the  limits  of  the  county  of  Providence,  excepting  Cum- 
berland, and  a  few  years  after,  a  settlement  was  established 
at  Patuxet,  near  Providence,  by  William  Arnold,  William 
Carpenter,  Zachariah  Rhodes,  and  William  Harris,  who 
went  there  from  Providence.  Although  the  order  of  time 
may  be  anticipated  by  a  few  months,  yet  the  settlement 
of  Providence  was  followed  so  soon  by  that  of  Rhode 
Island,  so  intimately  were  they  connected,  having  been 
united  under  the  same  government  shortly  after  the  set- 
tlement, that  it  will  be  no  violation  of  historical  propriety 
to  place  the  accounts  of  both  in  juxta-position. 

*  Particularly  Robert  Williams,  John  Smith,  Hugh  Be  wit,  William  Wicken- 
den,  John  Field,  Thomas  Hopkins,  and  William  Hawkins. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  ^23 

In  1637,  the  celebrated  Mrs  Hutchinson,  who  had,  by 
her  enthusiasm,  eloquence  and  talents,  excited  great  dis- 
turbances at  Boston,  shared  the  fate  of  Mr  Williams,  and 
was  banished  for  entertaining  the  Antinomian  heresy,  as 
in  the  language  of  the  day  it  was  called,  although  many 
of  the  most  considerable  persons  in  Boston  were  partial 
to  her  doctrines,  particularly  Sir  Henry  Vane  the  gover- 
nor, and  Mr  Cotton.  She  was  accompanied  in  her  exile 
by  her  husband,  William  Hutchinson,  William  Codding- 
ton,  Esq.,  an  assistant  of  Massachusetts,  John  Clark,  John 
Coggesshall,  William  Aspinwall,  Samuel  Wilbore,  John 
Porter,  John  Sandford,  Edward  Hutchinson,  Thomas  Sav- 
age, William  Dyer,  William  Freeborn,  Philip  Shearman, 
John  Walker,  Richard  Carder,  William  Baulston,  Edward 
Hutchinson,  jr.,  and  Henry  Bull.  Mr  Clark  and  one 
other  went  to  Providence  to  advise  with  Mr  Williams, 
who  recommended  either  the  purchase  of  Sowams,  (about 
Warren,)  or  Aquedneck,  (Rhode  Island.)  Fearful  of  in- 
truding on  the  Plymouth  colony,  they  went  to  Plymouth 
to  ascertain  the  extent  of  their  claim.  Sowams  was  con- 
sidered by  that  government  '  as  the  garden  of  their  colo- 
ny,' but  they  informed  Mr  Clark  and  Mr  Williams  that 
they  had  no  claim  to  Aquedneck,  and  advised  that  Mrs 
Hutchinson's  followers  should  settle  there,  '  where  they 
should  be  esteemed  as  friends  and  neighbors.' 

By  the  good  offices  of  Williams,  Miantonimo  the  young 
sachem  of  the  Narragansetts,  (who  had  now  assumed  the 
government,)  Aquedneck,  or  Aquetneck  was  granted  to 
Mr  Coddington,  Mr  Clark,  and  their  associates,  by  deed, 
dated  March  24,  1637,-8  old  style.  Mr  Williams  in  his 
account  of  this  transaction,  said,  '  it  was  not  price  or 
money  that  could  have  purchased  Rhode  Island,  but  'twas 
obtained  by  love,  that  love  and  favor  which  that  honored 
gentleman,  Sir  Henry  Vane,   and  myself,   had   with  the 


224  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

great  sachem  Miantonimo,  about  the  league  which  I  pro- 
cured between  the  Massachusetts  English,  and  the  Narra- 
gansetts,  in  the  Pequod  war,' — '  for  the  Indians  were  very 
shy  and  jealous  of  selling  lands  to  any,  and  chose  rather 
to  make  a  grant  (gift)  of  them  to  such  as  they  affected.' 

The  associates  settled  on  the  island  at  a  place  opposite 
to  Mount  Hope,  which  they  called  Portsmouth,  and  elect- 
ed Mr  Coddington  governor.  Their  numbers  were  soon 
increased,  and  in  a  short  time  several  of  them  separating 
from  the  others  in  1639,  founded  the  town  of  Newport. 

The  government  established  by  Williams  was  a  pure 
democracy,  all  laws  being  made,  trials  had,  offenders 
sentenced  to  punishment  in  the  town  meetings,  and  there 
all  proceedings  touching  the  welfare  of  the  settlement, 
were  voted. 

The  government  of  Rhode  Island  was  of  the  same  char- 
acter. An  inhabitant  of  Newport,  of  great  note,  was 
tried  for  a  capital  crime  in  town  meeting,  sentenced, 
and  in  pursuance  of  the  sentence  of  the  meeting,  exe- 
cuted ! 

This  similarity  in  the  practice  of  government  induced 
them  to  seek  a  union,  and  Mr  Williams  was  sent  over  to 
England  as  their  joint  agent  to  obtain  a  common  charter 
for  both.  For  this  purpose  he  left  America  in  1642,  and 
found  h*is  countrymen  there  in  the  midst  of  a  furious  civil 
war  ;  but  the  Parliament  being  masters  of  the  fleet  could 
control  the  plantations.  By  the  influence  of  Sir  Henry 
Vane,  with  whom  he  had  an  intimate  friendship,  he  ob- 
tained an  instrument  in  1643,  by  which  the  towns  of 
Providence,  Portsmouth,  and  Newport  were  granted  '  a 
free  and  absolute  charter  of  incorporation,  to  be  known 
by  the  name  of  the  Incorporation  of  Providence  Planta- 
tions, in  the  Narragansett  Bay,  in  New  England.'  By 
this  charter,  the  form  of  the  government  was  left  to  the 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  225 

choice  of  the  people.  A  chief  magistrate  was  constituted, 
who  was  called  a  president,  and  Mr  Williams  became  the 
first  political  president  ever  known  in  America. 

It  has  been  already  related  that  a  patent  had  been 
issued  to  William  Bradford,  and  such  as  he  should  asso- 
ciate with  him  in  1629,  which  remained  for  some  time  in 
one  of  the  public  offices  of  England  in  the  vain  hope  of 
obtaining  the  sanction  of  the  king. 

The  pilgrims  had  adopted  no  constitution  or  instrument 
of  government  except  the  simple  compact  which  was 
signed  by  all  the  company  in  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower, 
(Nov.  1620,)  and  which  recognized  no  principle  but  that 
of  allegiance  to  the  king,  and  the  controlling  power  of 
the  majority  of  the  people  in  the  transactions  of  the 
colony.  No  laws  were  made  for  the  general  organization 
of  the  government ;  the  limits  of  political  rights  and  po- 
litical powers  were  not  defined  ;  the  governor  and  assist- 
ants maintained  their  small  portion  of  authority  rather  by 
common  consent,  than  by  a  lawful  delegation  of  power. 
The  royal  authority  was  recognized,  and  the  laws  of 
England  were  considered  as  having  force  in  the  colony, 
unless  altered  or  repealed  by  colonial  statutes ;  but  it  was 
very  difficult  to  ascertain  the  character,  authority,  and 
force  of  those  laws  ;  —  with  the  subtle  logic  of  construc- 
tion, and  the  system  of  artificial  reasoning,  growing  out 
of  the  practice  of  special  pleading,  this  people  were 
entirely  unacquainted  ;  none  amongst  them  understood 
the  science  of  the  law,  and  their  long  absence  from  Eng- 
land had  deprived  them  of  any  practical  knowledge. 
The  clergy  only  understood  its  elementary  principles, 
but  they  were  more  disposed  to  follow  the  laws  of  Moses 
than  the  laws  of  England. 

Crimes  and  punishments  were   neither  declared  nor  de- 
fined 5    even  in  a  plain  case   of   murder,  the  advice  of 
29 


226         MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Governor  Winthrop,  (who  had  been  educated  to  the  law,) 
was  sought,  and  he  advised  them  to  inflict  the  punishment 
of  death,  not  because  the  punishment  was  required  by 
the  law  of  England,  but  '  that  the  land  might  be  purged 
of  blood.'  The  only  magistrates  were  the  governor  and 
assistants.  The  office  of  justice  of  the  peace  was 
unknown.  Trials  were  had  in  the  general  court  before 
juries  selected  from  the  whole  body  of  the  freemen  of 
the  colony,  and  until  1634,  the  governor  and  assistants 
were  not  by  law  considered  a  judicial  court.  The  magis- 
trates had  no  jurisdiction  of  civil  actions,  and  in  criminal 
offences  their  jurisdiction  was  confined  to  the  power  of 
'  binding  over'  the  accused  to  appear  at  the  general  court. 
The  rule  as  to  the  descent  of  estates  and  the  law  of  con- 
tracts was  unsettled.  The  duties,  powers,  and  obligations 
of  husband  and  wife,  parent  and  child,  guardian  and 
ward,  master  and  servant,  &.c,  were  controlled  and  influ- 
enced by  usages,  which  had  been  varied  from  the  usages 
of  England  founded  on  the  laws,  by  a  residence  in  Hol- 
land, and  in  a  wilderness,  where  in  a  manner  men  were 
put  upon  the  elementary  principles  of  society.  The 
ecclesiastical  law,  which,  in  England,  regulates  marriages, 
divorces,  the  probate  of  wills,  administrations,  &c,  was 
but  little  understood  and  but  little  regarded.  Marriage 
was  deemed  a  civil  contract,  and  was  solemnized  by  the 
civil  magistrate,  and  not  by  the  pastor  or  elder. 

An  imperfect  attempt  had  been  made  in  1633,  in  case 
of  an  insufficiency  of  the  goods  and  chattels  of  a  deceased 
person  to  pay  his  debts,  to  charge  them  upon  his  lands, 
but  as  a  portion  was  to  be  set  apart  for  his  family,  it  did 
not  give  much  chance  to  the  creditor. 

With  respect  to  the  natives  of  the  country,  the  situation 
of  the  English  was  peculiar,  anomalous,  and  difficult ;  and 
no  precedents  existed  to  guide  them.    How  far  the  laws  in 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  227 

force  in  the  colony  were  applicable  to  the  Indians ;  how 
far  their  penal  power,  and  the  power  to  enforce  contracts 
extended,  were  questions  which  perplexed  the  wisest.  In 
some  instances  a  qualified,  in  others  an  absolute  title  was 
admitted  in  the  Indians  to  the  lands  within  the  jurisdic- 
tion. Sometimes  a  verbal  donation  was  deemed  sufficient 
to  pass  the  title,  and  sometimes  deeds  were  executed  with 
all  the  formality  and  precision  of  legal  instruments.  The 
sachems,  however,  appear  to  have  been  considered  as  the 
only  natives  having  authority  to  convey  lands. 

With  respect  to  political  objects,  previous  to  the  year 
1636,  the  Plymouth  colony  may  be  considered  to  have 
been  but  a  voluntary  association,  ruled  by  the  majority,  and 
not  by  fixed  laws.  It  does  not  appear,  (except  in  a  very  few 
instances,)  that  they  had  availed  themselves  of  their  dele- 
gated powers  under  their  patent  to  enact  laws  until  1633.  A 
few  laws  only,  and  such  as  were  of  the  most  urgent  neces- 
sity were  then  established,  such  as  declaring  every  person 
within  the  jurisdiction  liable  to  the  performance  of  military 
duty ;  giving  the  jurisdiction  of  the  probate  of  wills,  and 
of  granting  administrations  to  the  governor  and  assist- 
ants ;  regulating  fishing  and  fowling  ;  authorizing  consta- 
bles and  persons  trespassed  upon  to  impound  cattle  taken 
in  damage  feasant.  Penalties  were  directed  to  be  in- 
flicted on  such  as  fired  the  woods.  Lands  of  deceased 
persons  were  made  liable  for  their  debts  in  case  of  the 
insufl[iciency  of  personal  property.  No  provision  was 
made  for  the  support  of  schools  or  the  clergy  ;  the  attach- 
ment of  the  people,  then,  ensured  the  maintenance  of  the 
clergy  without  the  coercion  of  the  law,  and  no  oaths  of 
office  were  administered  or  required.  The  power  of  the 
church,  in  effect,  was  superior  to  the  civil  power,  but  in 
terms,  was  confined  to  the  infliction  of  censure  only. 


228         MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

A  people  like  the  members  of  Robinson's  church,  of 
pure  morals,  austere  manners  and  enthusiastic  piety,  if 
confined  to  a  small  space,  where  the  conduct  of  each 
would  daily  fall  under  the  observation  of  the  pastor,  elder, 
and  all  such  as  they  had  been  taught  to  venerate,  and 
accustomed  to  respect,  might  be  preserved  for  a  time 
from  the  commission  of  any  gross  offences  or  any  despe- 
rate crimes.  But  as  the  settlements  expanded,  as  trade 
increased,  as  strangers  came  in  in  pursuit  of  gain  without 
any  reference  to  the  ordinances  of  religion,  and  who, 
regardless  of  their  spiritual  good,  pursued  their  temporal 
interest, —  the  authority,  founded  on  the  dread  of  censure 
alone,  became  impaired,  and  the  selfish  principles  of  man 
inwoven  in  his  system,  became  predominant  in  his  con- 
duct. Codes  of  ethics,  or  the  precepts  of  the  gospel, 
could  not  prevent  the  occurrence  of  disputes,  or  the  ex- 
istence of  wrongs. 

Civilians  arguing  upon  the  theoretic  principles  of  gov- 
ernment without  considering  the  actual  state  of  the  people, 
have  deemed  the  colonists  to  have  been  a  trading  corpo- 
ration with  confined  and  limited  powers,  not  having  the 
authority  to  enact  laws  or  to  perform  any  act  of  sovereign- 
ty :  they  did  in  fact  exercise  sovereign  power  during  the 
whole  period  of  their  colonial  existence,  but  the  essential 
laws  on  which  the  rule  and  government  rested,  may  be 
dated  from  this  year. 

After  the  imperfect  commencement  in  1633,  the  years 
1634  and  1635  were  suffered  to  pass  without  any  further 
progress,  but  the  period  had  now  arrived  when  all  per- 
ceived the  necessity  of  defining  the  limits  of  the  power, 
and  of  prescribing  the  actual  duties  of  the  magistrates 
and  people  ;  of  securing  civil  privileges  ;  of  establishing 
fundamental  and  organic  laws,  both  civil  and  criminal, 
and  to  provide  for  their  execution  ;  of  changing  the  legal 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  229 

condition  of  the  associates  by  making  them  a  body  po- 
litic, ruled  by  law  and  not  by  opinion ;  of  placing  their 
government  on  a  stable  foundation,  and  advancing  an- 
other stage  in  the  progress  of  social  life. 

On  the  15th  of  November,  at  a  court  of  Associates,  the 
following  declaration  was  ordered  : 

'  We  the  associates  of  New  Plymouth,  coming  hither 
as  freeborn  subjects  of  the  State  of  England,  and  endowed 
with  all  and  singular  the  privileges  belonging  to  such, 
being  assembled,  do  ordain  that  no  act,  imposition,  law,  or 
ordinance  be  made  or  imposed  upon  us  at  the  present  or 
to  come,  but  such  as  shall  be  made  and  imposed  by  con- 
sent of  the  body  of  the  associates,  or  their  representatives 
legally  assembled,  which  is  according  to  the  liberties  of 
the  state  of  England.' 

This  order  is  of  no  ordinary  character  ;  whether  the 
laws  of  England  which  preceded  this  order  were  re- 
nounced, is  equivocal ;  the  authority  of  English  laws,  '  at 
present  or  to  come,'  was  renounced,  and  Parliament  were 
denied  the  right  of  legislating  for  New  Plymouth  by  the 
whole  body  of  the  associates.  This  order  is  the  first 
declaration  of  rights  if  not  of  independence,  and  the  laws 
which  followed  became  absolutely  necessary  for  the 
preservation  of  the  government. 

The  courts  were  all  to  be  holden  at  Plymouth  unless 
otherwise  ordered  by  the  governor  and  assistants,  who 
were  authorised  upon  reasonable  cause  '  to  keep  some 
courts  of  assistants  elsewhere.' 

It  was  enacted  that  on  the  first  Tuesday  of  June,  a 
governor  and  seven  assistants  should  be  chosen  '  to  rule 
and  govern  the  plantation  within  the  limits  of  this  corpo- 


230  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

ration,'  and  the  election  was  confined  to  the  freemen.* 
The  qualifications  required  to  constitute  a  freeman  were, 
twentyone  years  of  age,  '  sober  and  peaceable  conversa- 
tion, orthodox  in  the  fundamentals  of  religion,'  and  a 
rateable  estate  of  the  value  of  twenty  pounds.  All  these 
were  prerequistes  before  they  could  be  admitted  to  the  oath 
prescribed  to  be  taken  by  freemen. 

Some  of  the  best  men  in  the  colony  were  precluded. 
William  Vassal  Esq.  of  Scituate,  who  had  been  an  assis- 
tant in  Massachusetts,  and  was  one  of  the  wealthiest  as 
well  as  worthiest  and  most  intelligent  gentlemen  of  whom 
the  colony  could  boast,  was  disqualified  for  oflSce,  for 
although  a  puritan,  he  continued  an  Episcopalian. 

It  was  also  enacted  that  the  governor  in  due  season,  by 
warrant  directed  to  the  several  constables  in  the  name  of 
his  majesty  should  give  notice  to  the  freemen  either  to 
make  their  personal  appearance  at  the  courts  of  election, 
or  to  send  their  votes  by  proxy  for  the  choice  of  officers, 
and  that  all  warrants,  summons,  and  commands,  '  be  all 
done,  directed,  and  made  in  the  name  of  our  sovereign 
lord  the  king.' 


*  The  following  oath  was  prescribed  for  the  freemen  at  this  court. 

'  You  shall  be  truly  loyal  to  our  dread  lord  King  Charles,  his  heirs  and  suc- 
cessors, you  shall  not  do,  nor  speak,  devise  or  advise  anything  or  things,  act  or 
acts,  directly  or  indirectly  by  land  or  water  that  shall  or  may  tend  to  the  de- 
struction or  overthrow  of  the  present  plantations  or  township  of  the  corporation 
of  New  Plymouth  ;  neither  shall  you  suffer  the  same  to  be  spoken  or  done,  but 
shall  hinder,  oppose,  and  discover  the  same  to  the  governor  and  assistants  of  the 
said  colony  for  the  time  being,  or  some  one  of  them  ;  you  shall  faithfully  sub- 
mit unto  such  good  and  wholesome  laws  and  ordinances  as  either  are  or  shall 
be  made  for  the  ordering  and  government  of  the  same,  and  shall  endeavor  to  ad- 
vance the  good  and  growth  of  the  several  townships  and  plantations  within  the 
limits  of  this  corporation  by  all  due  means  and  courses,  all  which  you  promise 
and  swear  by  the  name  of  the  great  God  of  heaven,  and  earth,  firmly,  truly, 
and  faithfully  to  perform,  as  you  hope  for  help  from  God,  who  is  the  God  of 
truth,  and  punisher  of  falsehood.' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  231 

The  vote  by  proxy  would  appear  somewhat  strange  at 
this  day.  and  although  in  the  simple  days  of  our  fore- 
fathers the  agent  might  honestly  vote  as  his  principal 
directed,  yet  in  the  fury  of  modern  contests,  it  would  at 
certain  periods  have  been  considered  an  act  of  sturdy 
honesty  in  one  entrusted  with  this  power,  to  use  it  for  the 
discomfiture  of  his  party,  although  such  had  been  his 
instruction. 

The  jurisdiction  of  all  causes  under  405.  was  given  to 
the  governor  and  any  two  of  the  assistants,  '  to  try  at  any 
time,  and  also  in  offences  of  small  nature  to  do  as  God 
shall  direct  them.'  The  power  of  trying  the  larger  offen- 
ces and  suits,  still  abided  in  the  whole  body  of  the  freemen, 
by  their  juries. 

This  law  although  it  may  be  evidence  of  the  piety  of 
our  forefathers,  seems  to  be  too  general  in  its  terms  — '  to 
do  as  God  shall  direct,'  might  have  produced  contradictory 
decisions.  For  men  interpret  the  will  of  God  so  vari- 
ously, that  no  uniformity  in  decisions  could  have  been 
established  under  a  power  so  undefined.  It  would  seem 
as  though  the  decision  of  the  governor  and  assistants 
in  small  cases  was  final,  and  this  certainly  when  consid- 
ered in  one  way,  was  not  an  unwise  law  ;  it  prevented  the 
ruinous  prosecution  of  small  suits,  which  is  generally  to 
the  injury  of  both  contending  parties.  Yet  the  trial  by 
jury  would  be  yielded  at  this  period  with  great  reluctance, 
even  in  disputes  of  the  most  trifling  character. 

The  duties  and  power  of  the  governor  were  thus  defined 
by  law. 

'  The  office  of  governor  for  the  time  being,  consisting 
in  the  execution  of  such  laws  and  ordinances  as  are  or 
shall  be  made  and  established  for  the  good  of  the  corpo- 
ration according  to  the  bounds  and  limits  thereof,  namely, 
in  calling  together  and  advising  with  the  assistants  in 


232  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

council  of  the  said  corporation,  upon  such  material  causes 
or  so  seeming  to  him,  as  time  shall  bring  forth.  In  which 
assembly  and  all  others,  the  governor  to  propound  the 
occasion  of  the  assembly,  and  have  a  double  vote  therein  ; 
if  the  assistants  judge  the  cause  too  great  to  be  decided 
by  them,  and  refer  it  to  the  general  court,  then  the  gov- 
ernor to  summon  a  court  by  warning  all  the  freemen  that 
are  then  extant,  as  also  in  case  the  majority  of  the  freemen 
seeing  weighty  cause  for  the  whole  body  of  freemen  to 
come  together,  and  in  an  orderly  way  acquaint  the  gov- 
ernor with  their  desires  thereof;  then  he  shall  summon 
the  whole  body  of  freemen  together  with  all  convenient 
speed,  and  there  also  to  propound  causes,  and  go  before 
the  assistants  in  the  examination  of  particulars,  and  to 
propound  such  sen^tence  as  shall  be  determined.  Further 
it  shall  be  lawful  for  him  to  arrest  and  commit  to  ward  any 
offender,  provided  that  with  all  convenient  speed  he  bring 
the  case  to  hearing  either  of  the  assistants  or  general 
court,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  offence  ;  also  it  shall 
be  lawful  for  him  to  examine  any  suspicious  persons  for 
evil  against  the  colony,  as  also  to  interrupt  or  oppose  such 
letters  as  he  conveniently  may  send  to  the  overthrow  of 
the  same,  and  that  his  office  continue  one  year,  and  no 
more,  namely,  until  another  be  elected.'* 

*  Previous  to  entering  on  the  duties  of  his  office,  the  following  oath  was  to  be 
taken  by  the  governor. 

'  You  shall  be  truly  loyal  to  our  sovereign  lord,  King  Charles,  his  heirs  and 
successors ;  also,  according  to  that  measure  of  understanding  and  discerning 
given  unto  you,  shall  faithfully,  equally,  and  indifferently,  without  respect  of 
persons  administer  justice  in  all  cases  coming  before  you  as  the  governor  of 
New  Plymouth.  You  shall  in  like  manner  faithfully,  duly,  and  truly,  execute 
the  laws  and  ordinances  of  the  same,  and  shall  labor  to  advance  the  good  of  the 
townships  and  plantations  within  the  limits  thereof,  to  the  uttermost  of  your 
power,  and  oppose  anything  that  shall  seem  to  hinder  the  same.  So  help  you 
God,  who  is  the  God  of  truth  and  the  punisher  of  falsehood.' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  333 

The  office  of  governor  seems  to  have  given  to  the  incum- 
*bent  but  little  more  than  the  privilege  of  acting  as  chair- 
man of  the  courts  of  assistants,  or  of  the  general  court;  — 
the  honorary  station  of  being  the  official  head  of  political 
society.  He  was  destitute  of  the  power  of  appointing 
the  officers  of  the  government,  or  even  of  nominating 
them,  of  course  he  had  no  patronage,  or  any  mode  of 
securing  influence,  excepting  what  arose  from  the  weight 
of  his  personal  character.  He  could  call  the  assistants  to- 
gether for  the  purpose  of  advising  with  them  in  council, 
and  in  voting  his  voice  was  double,  but  the  assistants 
could  refer  all  matters  to  the  general  court,  which  the 
governor  was  obliged  to  summon  if  they  required  it,  and 
his  duty  in  that  court  was  confined  to  the  statement  of  the 
questions  upon  which  they  were  to  act.  The  power  of 
arrest  was  given  to  him,  but  no  further  than  to  restrain  the 
offender  until  his  offence  could  be  investigated  either  by 
the  court  of  assistants  or  the  general  court.  The  power 
of  examining  suspicious  persons,  and  of  '  interrupting  let- 
ters,' was  given  probably  in  consequence  of  the  miscon- 
duct of  Lyford.  It  cannot  well  be  conceived  how  a  gov- 
ernment could  be  administered  with  such  limited  authority 
in  the  executive.  The  personal  influence  of  the  governor 
must  have  supplied  the  want  of  legal  power. 

The  assistants  were  required  to  appear  at  the  governor's 
summons,  and  to  give  their  best  advice  both  in  public 
court  and  private  council  with  the  governor  for  the  welfare 
of  the  several  plantations  within  the  government,  *  and 
not  to  disclose  such  things  as  concerned  the  public  good, 
and  shall  be  thought  most  to  be  considered  by  the  governor 
and  council  of  assistants.  To  have  a  hand  in  examining  of 
public  offenders,  and  in  contriving  the  affairs  of  the  colony, 
and  a  voice  in  censuring  such  offenders  as  shall  be  brought 
to  public  court.'  In  the  absence  of  the  governor  the 
30 


234  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

government  was  to  be  administered  by  an  assistant  of  his 
nomination  with  the  consent  of  the  other  assistants,  and 
also  to  examine  and  commit  offenders  to  ward,  the  hearing 
of  the  offender  however  to  be  before  the  governor  and  the 
other  assistants.  Assistants  were  also  authorized  in  his 
majesty's  name  to  direct  their  warrants  to  constables  who 
were  required  to  execute  them,  and  to  '  bind  out  persons 
for  matter  of  crime  to  answer  at  the  next  ensuing  court  of 
his  majesty  after  the  fact  committed,  or  person  appre- 
hended.'* 

The  want  of  power  in  the  governor  was  not  supplied  by 
the  greater  powers  of  the  assistants.  They  were  to  advise 
the  governor,  and  were  restrained  from '  betraying  council.* 
They  presided  in  the  examination  of  offenders  in  public 
court,  '  and  had  a  voice  in  censuring.'  One  of  them  by 
the  consent  of  the  others  on  the  nomination  of  the  gov- 
ernor could  discharge  the  executive  duties  in  his  absence, 
and  their  power  to  arrest  was  similar  to  that  of  the  gov- 
ernor. 

Within  this  narrow  circle  were  confined  the  powers  of 
the  assistants.  In  a  factious  society,  this  power  would 
have  been  constantly  defied  and  contemned,  but  the  colo- 
nists were  sober,  moral,  reflecting,  and  religious,  in  fact 

*  The  following  oath  was  prescribed  to  the  assistants. 

'  You  shall  all  swear  to  be  truly  loyal  to  our  sovereign  lord  King  Charles,  his 
heirs  and  successors  : — You  shall  faithfully,  truly,  and  justly,  according  to  the 
measure  of  discerning  and  discretion  God  hath  given  you,  be  assistant  to  the 
governor  for  this  present  year,  for  the  execution  of  justice  in  all  cases,  and 
towards  all  persons  coming  before  you  without  partiality, — according  to  the  na- 
ture of  the  office  of  an  assistant  read  unto  you  : — Moreover,  you  shall  diligently 
duly,  and  truly,  see  that  the  laws  and  ordinances  of  this  colony  be  duly  exe- 
cuted, and  shall  labor  to  advance  the  good  of  the  several  plantations  within  the 
limits  thereof,  and  oppose  anything  that  shall  seem  to  annoy  the  same,  by  all 
due  means  and  courses.  So  help  you  God,  who  is  the  God  of  truth,  and  pun- 
isherof  falsehood.' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  235 

a  well  regulated  family,,  loving  and  obeying  their  magis- 
trates with  an  affection  and  reverence  like  that  which 
children  render  their  parents,  and  the  influence  of  the 
clergy  was  a  powerful  support  to  this  paternal  government 
which  depended  so  little  on  physical  strength,  and  so  much 
on  the  moral  force  of  opinion.  But  yet  a  most  extraor-* 
dinary  power  was  givjen  to  the  governor  and  any  two  of 
the  assistants  by  a  law  of  1636,  which  forbid  any  person 
to  '  live  and  inhabit  within  this  government  of  New  Ply- 
mouth without  their  leave  and  liking.'* 

At  every  election  court  it  was  provided  '  that  some  one 
of  the  assistants,  or  some  other  sufficient  man  be  chosen 
treasurer  who  was  to  remain  in  office  a  year,  who  was  au- 
thorized to  demand  and  receive  whatever  accrued  from 
fines,  amercements,  or  otherwise,'  and  he  was  directed 
*  to  improve  the  same  for  the  public  benefit  of  this  cor- 
poration.' For  this  office  neither  oath  nor  bond  were 
required. 

The  responsibility  of  the  treasurer  could  not  have  been 
great,  his  receipts  being  confined  to  fines  and  amerce- 
ments, and  it  was  from  this  circumstance  probably,  that 
the  precautions  which  in  times  more  modern  have  been 
used  to  secure  the  faithful   performance  of  this  high  trust 

*  The  following  oath  was  prescribed  to  he  taken  by  any  residing  in  the  gov- 
ernment. 

'  You  shall  be  truly  loyal  to  our  sovereign  lord  King  Charles,  his  heirs  and 
successors,  and  whereas  you  choose  at  present  to  reside  within  the  government 
of  New  Plymouth,  you  shall  not  do  or  cause  to  be  done  any  act  or  acts  directly 
or  indirectly,  by  land  or  water,  that  shall  or  may  tend  to  the  destruction  or  over- 
throw of  the  whole  or  any  the  several  plantations  or  townships  within  the  said 
government  that  are  or  shall  be  orderly  erected  or  established,  but  shall  contra- 
wise  hinder,  oppose,  and  discover  the  same,  and  such  intents  and  purposes  as  tend 
thereunto,  to  the  governor  for  the  time  being,  or  some  one  of  the  assistants  with 
all  convenient  speed.  You  shall  also  submit  unto  and  obey  all  such  good  and 
wholesome  laws,  ordinances,  and  offices  as  are  or  shall  be  established  within 
the  limits  thereof.     So  help  you  God  I' 


236  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

were  omitted,  and  not  from  an  overweening  confidence  in 
the  honesty  of  the  individual  to  whom  its  duties  were  then 
entrusted. 

The  office  of  sheriff  was  not  recognized.  The  office 
of  marshal  of  the  colony  was  established  subsequently. 
At  this  period  no  other  civil  executive  office  (that  of  gover- 
nor and  assistants  excepted)  existed,  except  that  of  consta- 
ble, which  was  then  of  much  more  consideration  than  now. 
This  office  appears  to  have  been  established  very  early,  and 
is  recognized  as  existing.  The  constables  seem  to  have 
been  entrusted  with  all  the  executive  processes  of  the  law,* 
and  they  had  the  power  to  apprehend  '  suspicious  per- 
sons' without  precept. 

At  the  present  period,  the  power  to  arrest  on  suspicion 
'  without  precept,'  is  scarcely  allowed  even  to  the  chief 
magistrate  of  the  nation  or  of  a  State. 

CRIMINAL    LAWS. 

The  offences  which  were  made  capital,  and  ordered  ta 
be  punished  with  death,  were  — 

*  The  following  was  the  official  oath  prescribed  to  be  taken  by  coustablesy 
and  as  it  seems  a  pregnant  oath  and  to  contain  a  compendium  of  his  duties,  rt  is 
inserted. 

'  You  shall  swear  to  be  truly  loyal  to  our  sovereign  lord  King  Charles,  his  heins^ 
and  successors.      You  shall  faithfully  serve  in  the  office  of  constable  for  the 

ward  of for  this  present  year,  according  to  that  measure  of  wisdom,  un^ 

derstanding,  and  discretion  God  hath  given  you  :  in  which  time  you  shall  dili- 
gently see  that  his  majesty's  peace  commanded,  be  not  broken,  but  shall  carry 
the  person  or  persons  before  the  governor  of  this  corporation,  or  some  one  of  his 
assistants,,  and  there  attend  the  hearing  of  the  case,  and  such  order  as  shall  be 
given  you : — ^You  shall  apprehend  all  suspicious  persons  and  bring  them  before 
the  said  governor  or  some  one  of  his  assistants  as  aforesaid  :  You  shall  duly  and- 
truly  serve  such  warrants,  and  give  such  summons  as  shall  be  directed  to  you 
from  the  governor  or  assistants  before  mentioned,  and  shall  labor  to  advance  the 
peace  and  happiness  of  this  corporation,  and  to  oppose  anything  that  shall  seen? 
to  annoy  the  same,  by  all  due  means  and  courses.  So  help  you  Godj^  who  is  the 
God  of  truth  and  punisher  of  falsehood  ' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  237 

1.  Treason  or  rebellion  against  the  person  of  our  sov- 
ereign lord  the  king,  the  State  or  Commonwealth  of  Eng- 
land, or  this  corporation. 

2.  Wilful  murder. 

3.  Diabolical  conversation,  or  conversing  with  the 
Devil,  by  way  of  witchcraft,  conjuration,  or  the  like. 

4.  Wilful  or  purposed  burning  of  ships  or  houses. 

5.  Rape,  and  the  crimes  against  nature. 

In  the  enumeration  of  capital  offences,  burglary  and 
highway  robbery  are  omitted.  Witchcraft  is  made 
capital,  as  it  then  was  in  England,  and  probably  through- 
out Christendom.  The  belief  in  its  existence  was  a  delu- 
sion common  to  all,  and  the  punishment  was  warranted 
by  the  general  belief.  We  may  lament  the  ignorance  and 
fanaticism  of  the  age  which  cherished  such  belief,  but  we 
cannot  with  justice  impugn  the  motives  of  those  who 
provided  this  punishment.  However,  in  the  Plymouth 
Colony  the  law  was  a  dead  letter,  or  at  least  no  convictions 
were  had,  and  no  punishment  inflicted. 

The  wilful  burning  of  ships  or  houses,  without  discrim- 
inating between  the  night  and  the  day,  was  made  capital ; 
the  more  lenient  and  wiser  legislation  of  modern  times 
inflicts  capital  punishment  only  on  such  as  wilfully  and 
maliciously  burn  dwelling  houses  in  the  night  time.  The 
law  in  modern  times  has  also  been  wisely  relaxed  as  to  the 
punishment  of  the  crimes  against  nature,  although  such 
were  punished  capitally  in  Massachusetts,  until  1806. 
Whether  the  laws  of  England  would  have  been  recognised 
in  the  punishment  of  highway  robbery,  and  burglary,  can- 
not be  known  as  those  crimes  never  became  the  subject  of 
judicial  investigation  during  the  existence  of  the  colony, 
neither  was  any  capital  punishment  inflicted  in  the  colony 
except  for  the  crime  of  murder. 


238  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Stocks  and  whipping-posts  were  ordered  to  be  placed 
in  each  town. 

Drunkenness  was  punished  by  a  fine,  '  or  like  other  mis- 
demeanors.' 

With  respect  to  juries,  it  was  enacted  '  that  it  shall  be 
lawful  for  the  governor  to  impanell  such  of  his  majesty's 
subjects  as  are  of  good  report  and  freeholders,  upon  juries, 
although  no  freemen  do  appear  therein,  as  well  as  such 
as  have  taken  their  freedom,'  and  '  that  all  tryals  whether 
capital  or  between  man  and  man  be  tried  by  juries  ac- 
cording to  the  precedents  of  the  laws  of  England  as  near 
as  may  be.'  Each  town  was  to  choose  one  juror,  except 
the  remote  towns. 

The  grand  inquest  was  to  be  empannelled  by  the  gov-- 
ernor  and  assistants  out  of  all  the  townships,  '  and  warned 
to  serve  his  majesty  by  inquiring  into  abuses,  breaches  of 
the  peace,  wholesome  laws  and  ordinances  as  tend  to  the 
preservation  of  the  peace  and  the  good  of  the  subject, 
and  that  they  shall  present  such  to  the  court  as  are  guilty, 
that  they  may  be  prosecuted  by  the  court  by  all  means.' 
They  were  also  to  inquire  into  all  such  misdemeanors  as 
tended  '  to  the  hurt  and  detriment  of  society,  civility, 
peace,  and  neighborhood,'  and  to  make  presentment 
thereof. 

It  does  not  appear  that  the  grand  jury  were  to  be  under 
oath,  or  that  complaints  made  to  them  should  be  made  on 
oath,  and  probably  this  was  not  the  fact,  for  subsequently 
laws  were  enacted  requiring  both. 

The  whole  militia  law  was  contained  substantially  in 
these  words  : 

Every  person  both  for  himself  and  every  man  servant 
able  to  bear  arms,  was  required  to  provide  '  a  piece,  pow- 
der, and  shot,  with  bandaleers,  sword,  and  other  appur- 
tenances, and  to  be  at  all  times  furnished  with  a  pound  of 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  239 

powder,  and  four  pounds  of  bullets,  and  four  fathoms  of 
match  for  every  matchlock  musket.' 

Every  person  by  a  previous  law  had  been  made  liable 
to  perform  military  duty,  but  no  penalty  appears  to  have 
been  provided  for  non-performance,  either  then,  or  at  this 
time. 

In  1636,  it  was  provided  that  no  servant  coming  out  of 
his  time,  or  single  person,  '  be  suffered  to  keep  house  for 
themselves,'  until  they  were  completely  provided  with 
arms  and  ammunition,  and  were  not  allowed  to  be  house- 
keepers or  '  to  build  any  cottage  or  dwelling,  till  such 
time  as  they  be  allowed  by  the  governor  and  council  of 
assistants  or  some  one  or  more  of  them.' 

It  was  enacted  that  inheritances  should  '  descend  ac- 
cording to  the  commendable  custom  of  England  and  as 
they  hold  of  East  Greenwich.'  This  was  the  highest  title 
known  in  English  law,  unincumbered  with  any  of  the 
complicated  provisions  of  the  feudal  age,  knight's  service, 
&c.  the  ancient  Saxon  law  as  preserved  in  the  county  of 
Kent,  free  from  all  the  trappings  and  forms  of  the 
Norman  law. 

Mortgages,  leases,  or  other  conveyances  of  houses  and 
lands,  were  to  be  acknowledged  before  the  governor  or  an 
assistant,  and   '  committed  to  public  record.' 

A  preference  was  given  to  the  nafives  of  the  colony  in 
one  respect,  as  it  was  enacted  that  '  children  born  here, 
and  next  unto  them,  such  as  are  here,  and  brought  up 
under  their  parents,  of  age,  wanting  land  for  their  accom- 
modation, to  be  provided  for  in  preference  to  any  coming 
from  England  and  elsewhere.'  And  persons  covenanting 
to  give  lands  to  their  servants  after  service,  were  to  do  it 
out  of  their  own  proper  lands. 

None  were  allowed  to  marry  who  were  under  '  the 
covert  of  parents,'  without  their  consent  and  approbation, 


240  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

'  except  in  case  of  refusal,  the  governor  or  an  assistant,  it 
being  fit,  and  their  approbation  published  three  several 
times  in  public  before  solemnization,'  and  a  master  refus- 
ing to  permit  his  servant  to  marry,  the  magistrate  was 
authorized  to  permit  the  marriage.  If  the  consent  of 
parents,  masters,  or  guardians,  could  not  be  obtained 
'  through  any  sinister  or  covetous  desire,'  the  magistrates 
upon  complaint  and  examination,  might  order  that  v^^hich 
was  '  most  equal  and  best.' 

The  paternal  character  of  the  governor  and  assistants, 
is  strongly  recognised  in  this  law;  —  an  express  authority 
is  given  to  them  to  interfere  in  a  reasonable,  but  in  an 
effectual  manner,  in  matters  respecting  which  all  nations 
and  people  have  rejected  and  prohibited  all  interference 
beyond  the  domestic  roof. 

The  origin  of  town-governments  in  New  England,  is 
involved  in  some  obscurity.  The  system  does  not  prevail 
in  England.  Nothing  analogous  to  it  is  known  in  the 
southern  states,  and  although  the  system  of  internal  gov- 
ernment in  the  middle  states  bears  a  partial  resemblance 
to  that  of  New  England,  it  is  in  many  respects  dissimilar. 
Those  who  are  strangers  to  our  customs,  are  surprised  to 
find  the  whole  of  New  England  divided  into  a  vast  number 
of  little  democratic  republics,  which  have  full  power  to 
do  all  those  things  which  most  essentially  concern  the 
comforts,  happiness,  and  morals  of  the  people. 

The  revenue  expended  for  town  purposes,  far  exceeds 
the  amount  which  is  expended  for  the  support  of  the  state 
governments.  The  tax  gatherer  of  the  national  govern- 
ment is  not  known  except  to  the  importing  merchants,  who 
are  few  in  number,  and  are  residents  of  the  cities  on  the 
seaboard. 

The  whole  expense  of  supporting  paupers,  maintaining 
schools,  and  repairing  public  roads,  is  paid  by  the  inhab- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  241 

itants  of  the  towns  in  their  corporate  capacity.  The  sup- 
plies for  these  and  other  incidental  purposes,  are  voted  in 
the  town  meetings,  the  inhabitants  determine  the  amount, 
and  direct  the  mode  of  expenditure.  The  chief  executive 
power  is  in  the  hands  of  the  selectmen,  who  have  a  gen- 
eral oversight  and  supervision  of  the  affairs  of  the  towns, 
but  the  power  of  local  legislation  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
townsmen. 

Under  the  government  of  these  little  republics,  society 
is  trained  in  habits  of  order,  and  the  whole  people  acquire 
a  practical  knowledge  of  legislation  within  their  own 
sphere.  To  this  mode  of  government  may  be  attributed 
that  sober  and  reflecting  character,  almost  peculiar  to  the 
people  of  New  England,  and  their  general  knowledge  of 
politics  and  legislation.  Many  distinguished  orators  and 
statesmen  have  made  their  first  essays  in  town  meetings. 
In  the  popular  branch  of  the  state  legislature  the  mem- 
bers are  not  now  the  representatives  of  the  whole  people 
but  of  town  corporations. 

To  return  to  the  question  of  the  origin  of  these  govern- 
ments. It  will  be  recollected  that  at  the  time  of  the  first 
settlement  of  Plymouth  and  for  many  years  after,  all  mat- 
ters of  general  interest  were  decided  at  general  meetings 
of  the  whole  people  called  courts.  Plymouth  was  settled 
by  a  church,  and  at  first  the  ecclesiastical  government  was 
most  respected.  The  settlements  extended.  A  new  church 
was  formed  at  Duxbury,  one  afterwards  at  Marshfield,  an- 
other at  Scituate.  It  became  inconvenient  to  legislate  on 
matters  of  local  interest  at  Plymouth,  and  constablericks 
were  allowed  in  these  distant  places.  During  this  period, 
the  lands  for  the  most  part  were  held  by  occupancy,  and 
not  by  any  title  founded  on  English  law.  —  The  people 
soon  began  to  purchase  from  the  Indians.  The  practice 
becoming  common,  the  court  thought  proper  to  restrict 
31 


242  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

it,  and  to  pass  a  law  that  no  title  should  be  good  unless 
confirmed  by  them.  Hence  originated  the  practice  of 
forming  companies  of  proprietors  generally  called  pro- 
prietaries— A  purchase  of  territory  was  made  from  the 
Indians,  which  was  allowed  by  the  court,  who  upon  ap- 
plication, issued  a  charter,  and  the  company  became  a 
body  corporate.  Settlements  were  made,  and  an  act  of 
incorporation  by  which  the  territory  was  created  a  town 
followed.  Instead  of  being  settled  by  the  church  only,  min- 
isters were  settled  by  the  towns  in  town  meetings,  the 
salary  established  and  annually  voted,  and  in  some  towns 
this  practice  continues  to  this  day.  In  consequence  of 
the  increase  of  such  as  were  called  sectarians,  at  first 
Quakers,  then  Baptists,  and  occasionally  Episcopalians, 
the  practice  of  settling  ministers  in  town  meeting  and  sup- 
porting them  by  the  town's  funds  has  fallen  into  disuse. 
At  first  there  were  no  paupers,  there  were  poor  people  who 
received  partial  support  from  the  liberality  of  individ- 
uals, and  in  the  first  years  of  the  Plymouth  colony  there 
was  no  provision  made  by  law  for  the  support  of  schools. 
The  roads  then  as  now,  were  kept  in  repair  by  ^the 
common  and  personal  labor  of  the  people. 

As  circumstances  changed,  the  laws  were  changed,  and 
at  last  the  present  perfect  system  came  into  operation, 
having  been  gradually  accommodated  to  the  progress  of 
society,  and  the  condition  of  the  people.  Another  change 
is  now  demanded.  The  system  of  town  representation 
cannot  endure  ;  the  increase  of  rateable  polls,  on  which 
that  representation  is  founded  has  been  such,  that  the 
numbers  of  one  of  the  legislatives  bodies  in  this  state 
is  so  great,  as  to  obstruct  the  course  of  public  business 
and  almost  paralyze  legislation. 

To  the  independent  churches,  we  may  trace  the  origi- 
nal notion  of  independent  communities,  which  afterwards 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  243 

assumed  the  name  of  towns,  and  which  after  having 
passed  through  an  ecclesiastical  state,  and  after  the  pro- 
prietaries became  extinct  from  the  special  appropriation 
of  all  the  lands  within  the  bounds  of  their  charter^  as- 
sumed Ihe  shape  of  political  corporations,  with  muni- 
cipal and  in  fact  legislative  powers  within  their  own  limits. 


(       244     ) 


CHAPTER  XII. 

William  Bradford  again  elected  Governor. — Pequot  War. — Thomas  Prince 
elected  Governor. — Earthquake. — Murder  of  an  Indian  by  four  Englishmen. — 
Three  of  them  executed. — Controversy  veith  Gorton. — Gorton's  doctrines. — 
Settlement  of  New  Haven. 

Mr  Bradford  was  again  chosen  Governor,  and 
Mr  Winslow  first  assistant.  Five  other  assistants 
only  are  named  by  Secretary  Morton  as  having  been 
elected,  who  were  Timothy  Hatherly,  William  Collier, 
Gov.  Prince,  Capt.  Standish,  and  John  Jenny  for  the  first 
time. 

The  war  with  the  Pequots  commenced  and  terminated 
this  year  in  their  utter  overthrow  and  extermination. 
Plymouth  was  a  party  in  the  war,  and  fiftysix  men  march- 
ed under  the  command  of  Capt.  Standish,  but  before  he 
reached  the  scene  of  action,  the  war  was  terminated,  and 
Standish  returned.  The  history  of  this  war  belongs  to 
Connecticut. 

.-„Q  Thomas  Prince  was  elected  Governor;  William 
Bradford  first  assistant.  The  other  assistants  were 
Edward  Winslow,  Capt.  Standish,  John  Alden,  John 
Jenny,  John  Atwood,  John  Brown. 

The  people  during  this  year  were  alarmed  by  a  great 
earthquake  which  however  did  but  little  injury. 

Four  young  men  of  Plymouth,  who  were  servants,  ab- 
sconding from  their  masters,  attacked  a  solitary  Indian  at 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  245 

Pawtucket,  near  Providence,  but  within  the  limits  of  Ply- 
mouth, and  after  inflicting  upon  him  a  mortal  wound, 
robbed  him  of  a  quantity  of  wampum,  and  fled  to  Provi- 
dence. The  Indian  escaped  to  his  countrymen.  The 
Englishmen  discovering  that  he  had  escaped,  continued 
their  flight  to  Aquedneck,  (Rhode  Island,)  where  they 
were  apprehended.  Mr  Williams  informed  the  Governor 
of  Massachusetts  of  the  transaction,  and  requested  his 
advice.  He  was  advised  to  notify  the  government  of 
Plymouth,  and  upon  their  requisition  to  surrender  the 
criminals,  '  otherwise  seeing  no  English  had  jurisdiction 
in  the  place  where  the  murder  was  committed,  neither 
had  they  at  the  island  any  government  established,  it 
would  be  safest  to  deliver  the  principal,  who  was  certainly 
known  to  have  killed  the  party,  to  the  Indians  his  friends, 
with  caution  that  they  should  not  put  him  to  torture,  and  to 
keep  the  other  three  for  further  consideration.'  Wil- 
liams pursued  the  advice,  and  notified  the  government  of 
Plymouth,  who  thereupon  required  the  offenders,  and 
three  were  surrendered,  the  other  having  escaped.  The 
governor  of  Plymouth  understanding  that  the  prisoners 
intended  to  appeal  to  England,  also  solicited  the  advice 
of  Governor  Winthrop,  who  replied  that  the  whole  country 
was  interested,  and  urged  the  Plymouth  government  to 
have  'justice  done'  here,  and  it  was,  as  they  were  all  put 
upon  trial.  They  confessed  that  they  murdered  the  In- 
dian in  order  to  possess  themselves  of  his  wampum.  Some 
difficulty  occurred  at  the  trial,  inasmuch  as  no  witness 
could  swear  positively  that  the  Indian  was  dead ;  but  Mr 
Williams  and  Mr  James  of  Providence  testifying  that  his 
wound  was  mortal,  and  two  Indians  (notwithstanding  the 
general  panic  which  prevailed  amongst  them  in  conse- 
quence of  this  event)  having  been  persuaded  to  appear 
and  swearing  that  if  he  were  not  dead  of  the  wound,  they 


246  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY- 

themselves  would  suffer  death,  the  prisoners  were  all  con- 
demned and  executed.  Two  died  penitents  especially  Ar- 
thur Peach  an  Irishman, '  a  young  man  (says  Governor  Win- 
throp,)  of  good  parentage  and  fair  conditioned,  and  who 
had  done  very  good  service  against  the  Pequots.'  John 
Barnes  was  another.  The  name  of  the  third  is  not  men- 
tioned. The  one  who  escaped  fled  to  Piscataqua,  where 
he  was  protected  even  by  force,  and  finally  escaped  out 
of  the  country.*"  Roger  Williams  and  many  of  the  na- 
tives were  present  at  the  execution. 

*  The  following  account  of  this  transaction  is  contained  in  a  letter  from 
Roger  Williams  to  Governor  Winthrop. 

'  Sir,  there  hath  been  a  great  hubbub  in  all  these  parts,  as  a  general  per- 
suasion that  time  was  come  of  a  general  slaughter  of  natives,  by  reason  of  a 
murther  committed  upon  a  native  within  twelve  miles  of  us  by  four  desperate 
I'nglish.  I  presume  particulars  have  scarce  as  yet  been  presented  to  your 
hand.  The  last  5th  day,  towards  evening,  a  native,  passing  through  us, 
brought  me  word,  that  at  Pawtuckqut,  a  river  four  miles  from  us  towards  the 
bay,  four  Englishmen  were  almost  famished.  I  instantly  sent  provisions  and 
strong  water,  with  invitations,  &c.  The  messengers  brought  word  that  they 
were  one  Arthur  Peach  of  Plymouth  an  Irishman,  John  Barnes,  his  man, 
and  two  others  come  from  Pascataquack,  travelling  to  Qunnihticut ;  and  that 
they  had  been  lost  five  days,  and  fell  into  our  path  but  six  miles,  vi^hereas  they 
were  importuned  to  come  home,  &c.  They  pleaded  soreness  in  travelling, 
and  therefore  their  desire  to  rest  there. 

'  The  next  morning  they  came  to  me  by  break  of  day,  relating  that  the  old 
man  at  Pawatuckqut  had  put  them  forth  the  last  night,  because  some  Indians 
said  that  they  had  hurt  an  Englishman,  and  therefore  that  they  lay  between 
us  and  Pawatuckqut. 

'  I  was  busy  in  writing  letters  and  getting  them  a  guide  to  Qunnihticut,  and 
Inquired  no  more,  they  having  told  me  that  they  came  from  Plymouth  on  the 
last  of  the  week  in  the  evening,  and  lay  still  in  the  woods  the  Lord's  day,  and 
then  lost  their  way  to  Weymouth,  from  whence  they  lost  their  way  again  to- 
wards us,  and  came  in  again  six  miles  off  Pawatuckqut. 

*  After  they  were  gone,  an  old  native  comes  to  me,  and  tells  me  that  the 
natives  round  about  us  were  fled,  relating  that  those  four  had  slain  a  native, 
who  had  carried  three  beaver  skins  and  beads  for  Caunonicus'  son,  and  came 
home  with  five  fathom  and  three  coats;  that  three  natives  which  came  after 
him  found  him  groaning  in  the  path ;  that  he  told  them  that  four  Englishmen 
had  slain  him.    They  came  to  Pawatuckqut,  and  inquired  after  the  English, 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  247 

This  execution  is  an  undeniable  proof  of  that  stern 
sense  of  duty  which  was  cherished  by  the  Pilgrims.     To 

which  when  Arthur  and  his  company  heard,  they  got  on  hose  and  shoes,  and 
departed  in  the  night. 

'  I  sent  after  them  to  Nanhiggantick,  and  went  myself  with  two  or  three  more  to 
the  wounded  in  the  woods.  The  natives  at  first  were  shy  of  us,  conceiving  a  gen- 
eral slaughter,  but  (through  the  Lord's  mercy,)  I  assured  them  that  Mr  Governor 
knew  nothing,  &c,  and  that  I  had  sent  to  apprehend  the  men.  So  we  found 
that  he  had  been  run  through  the  leg  and  belly  with  one  thrust.  We  dressed 
him  and  got  him  to  town  the  next  day,  where  Mr  James  and  Mr  Greene  en- 
deavored all  they  could,  his  life;  but  the  wound  in  the  belly,  and  blood  lost, 
and  fever  following,  cut  his  life's  thread. 

'  Before  he  died,  he  told  me  that  the  four  English  had  slain  him,  and  that 
(being  faint  and  not  able  to  speak,)  he  had  related  the  truth  to  the  natives  who 
first  came  to  him,  viz.  that  they,  viz.  the  English,  saw  him  in  the  bay  and  his 
beads ;  that  sitting  in  the  side  of  a  swamp  a  little  way  out  of  the  path,  (I  went 
to  see  the  place,  fit  for  an  evil  purpose,)  Arthur  called  him  to  drink  tobacco, 
who  coming  and  taking  the  pipe  of  Arthur,  he  run  him  through  the  leg  into 
the  belly,  when,  springing  back,  Arthur  made  a  second  thrust,  but  mist  him ; 
that  another  of  them  struck  at  him,  but  mist  him,  and  his  weapon  run  into  the 
ground ;  that  getting  from  them  a  little  way  into  the  swamp,  they  pursued  him 
till  he  fell  down,  when  they  mist  him,  and  getting  up  again,  when  he  heard 
them  close  by  him,  he  run  to  and  again  in  the  swamp,  till  he  fell  down  again, 
when  they  lost  him  quite  ;  afterwards,  towards  night,  he  came  and  lay  in  the 
path,  that  some  passenger  might  help  him  as  aforesaid. 

'  Whereas  they  said,  they  wandered  Plymouth  way ;  Arthur  knew  the  path, 
having  gone  it  twice  ;  and  beside,  Mr  Throckmorton  met  them  about  Naponset 
river,  in  the  path,  who,  riding  roundly  upon  a  sudden  by  them,  was  glad  he 
had  passed  them,  suspecting  them.  They  denied  that  they  met  Mr  Throck- 
morton. 

'  The  messenger  that  I  sent  to  Nanhiggontick,  pursuing  after  them,  returned 
the  next  day,  declaring  that  they  showed  Miantunomu  letters  to  Aquedneck, 
(which  were  mine  to  Qunnihtiqut,)  and  so  to  Aquedenick  they  past,  whither  I 
sent  information  of  them,  and  so  they  were  taken.  Their  sudden  examination 
they  sent  me,  a  copy  of  which  I  am  bold  to  send  to  your  worship  enclosed. 

'  The  Islanders,  (Mr  Coddington  being  absent,)  resolved  to  send  them  to  us, 
some  thought,  by  us  to  Plymouth,  from  whence  they  came.  Sir,  I  shall  hum- 
bly crave  your  judgment  whether  they  ought  not  to  be  tried  where  they  are 
taken  ?  If  they  be  sent  any  way,  whether  not  to  Plymouth  ?  In  case  Ply- 
mouth refuse,  and  the  Islanders  send  them  to  us,  what  answers  we  may  give 
if  others  unjustly  shift  them  unto  us.  I  know  that  every  man,  quatenus  man, 
and  son  of  Adam,  is  his  brother's  keeper  or  avenger ;  but  1  desire  to  do  bonum 


248  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

put  three  Englishmen  to  death  for  the  murder  of  one  In- 
dian, without  compulsion,  or  without  any  apprehension  of 
consequences,  (for  it  does  not  appear  that  any  application 
was  made  on  the  part  of  the  Indians  for  the  punishment 
of  the  murderers,  and  they  might  have  been  pacified  by 
the  death  of  one,  and  probably  even  without  that,)  denotes 
a  degree  of  moral  culture  unequalled  in  new  settlements. 
It  stands  in  our  annals  without  a  parallel  instance;  the 
truth  of  the  fact  is  avouched  by  all  our  early  historians,  and 
it  stands  an  eternal  and  imperishable  monument  of  stern, 
unsparing,  inflexible  justice,  and  in  all  probability  it  was 
not  without  its  earthly  reward,  for  the  Indians,  convinced 
of  the  justice  of  the  English,  abstained  from  all  attempts 
to  avenge  their  wrongs,  by  their  own  acts  for  many  years. 
Samuel  Gorton,  a  native  of  the  city  of  London,  after 
visiting  Boston  in  1636,  went  to  Plymouth,  where  he  ad- 
vanced opinions  touching  religion  extremely  offensive  to 
the  church,  and  productive  of  much  controversy  amongst 
the  people,  some  of  whom  embraced  his  doctrines.  Enga- 
ging in  a  controversy  with  Mr  Smith,  the  pastor,  whose 
capacity  was  small,  and  who  probably  was  foiled  in  the 
dispute  by  Gorton,  Smith  sought  his  revenge  by  citing 
Gorton  to  appear  at  a  court  to  be  holden  at  Plymouth,  in 

bene.  Thus  beseeching  the  God  of  heaven,  most  holy  and  only  wise,  to  make 
the  interpretation  of  his  holy  meaning  in  all  occurrences,  to  bring  us  by  all 
these  bloody  passages  to  an  higher  price  of  the  blood  of  the  Son  of  God,  yea  of 
God,  by  which  the  chosen  are  redeemed,  with  all  due  respects  to  your  dear 
self  and  dear  companion,  I  cease.  Your  worship's  most  unworthy, 

'Roger  Williams.' 
In  another  letter  he  says — 

'  Sir, — At  Plymouth  it  pleased  the  Lord  to  force  the  prisoners  to  confess,  that 
they  all  complotted  and  intended  murder ;  and  they  were,  three  of  them,  (the 
fourth  having  escaped  by  a  pinnace,  from  Aquednick,)  executed  in  the  pre- 
sence of  the  natives,  who  went  with  me.' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  249 

December,  1638.  Gorton  maintaining  his  principles  not 
only  with  firmness  but  with  insolence,  the  court  sentenced 
him  to  find  security  for  his  good  behaviour  during  his  stay 
in  Plymouth,  which  was  limited  to  fourteen  days,  and 
amerced  him  in  a  large  fine.  He  went  from  Plymouth  to 
Rhode  Island,  and  although  the  settlers  there  had  just 
been  expelled  from  Massachusetts  for  heresy,  they  could 
not  endure  the  intrusion  of  Gorton's  opinions  amongst 
them,  and  he  was  sentenced  to  be  whipped,  and  then 
banished.  From  Rhode  Island  he  went  to  Providence, 
and  so  riotous  was  his  conduct,  that  even  the  mild  and 
tolerant  Williams  found  himself  constrained  to  solicit  the 
aid  of  Massachusetts  to  expel  him.  He  retired  amongst 
the  Indians  of  Narragansett,  and  purchased  of  two  of  the 
petty  sachems  a  tract  of  land  called  Sha-o-met,  of  four 
miles  in  width,  and  extending  back  twenty  miles.  The 
sachems  afterwards  denied  the  sale,  but  Miantonimo,  the 
chief  sachem  of  the  Narragansetts,  confirmed  it.  The 
petty  sachems  having  conveyed  their  title  to  Massachu- 
setts, that  colony  claimed  jurisdiction  of  the  territory,  and 
cited  Gorton  and  his  followers,  who  were  settled  on  the 
lands,  to  appear  at  Boston.  Gorton  denied  their  jurisdic- 
tion and  refused  to  go.  Capt.  George  Cook  and  forty 
men  were  then  despatched  from  Boston  to  apprehend 
Gorton  and  his  company.  They  seized  their  cattle,  des- 
troyed and  carried  away  their  goods,  and  guarded  all  the 
men,  being  ten  in  number,  besides  Gorton,  viz.  Randall 
Holden,  John  Wickes,  John  Greene,  Francis  Weston, 
Richard  Waterman,  John  Warner,  Richard  Carder,  Samp- 
son Shotton,  Robert  Potter,  and  William  Woodale,  as 
prisoners  to  Boston,  leaving  their  families  at  the  mercy  of 
the  Indians. 

It  would  seem  that  some  of  the  followers  both  of  Roger 
Williams  and   Mrs  Hutchinson,  had   been   seduced  from 
32 


250  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

their  fidelity  by  Gorton.  Greene,  Waterman,  and  Wes- 
ton had  accompanied  Williams  in  his  flight  from  Salem. 
Carder  had  been  a  follower  of  Mrs  Hutchinson.  Wickes 
followed  Gorton  from  Plymouth. 

They  were  brought  to  trial  in  Massachusetts,  not  for 
contumacy  or  defrauding  the  Indians,  but  for  blasphemy 
and  heresy,  and  the  trial  was  for  life  or  death.  Gorton's 
writings  were  produced  in  proof,  but  so  satisfactory  was 
his  explanation,  that  Governor  Winthrop  declared  in  court 
that  he  could  agree  with  them,  yet  such  was  the  horrible 
bigotry  of  the  age,  that  these  eleven  men  escaped  a  sen- 
tence of  death  by  a  majority  of  two  voices  only.  Their 
punishment,  however,  was  as  cruel  as  it  was  unjust ;  each 
was  compelled  to  wear  an  iron  chain  fast  bolted  round 
the  leg,  and  in  this  manner  to  labor.  If  they  spoke  to  any 
except  an  officer  of  church  or  state,  they  were  to  sufl'er 
death.  If  they  spoke  on  the  subject  of  religion,  or  com- 
plained of  their  usage,  they  were  to  suffer  death.  They 
were  kept  at  labor  through  the  winter,  and  then  banislied 
the  jurisdiction,  'not  to  return  on  pain  of  death.' 

Gorton,  Greene  and  Holden  went  to  England.  They 
obtained  an  order  from  the  earl  of  Warwick  and  the  other 
commissioners  of  the  plantations,  dated  August  19,  1644, 
directed  to  the  Massachusetts  colony,  of  the  following 
tenor.  After  *  expostulating  with  them  for  their  want  of 
charity,'  they  were  required  not  again  to  molest  the  set- 
tlers of  Shaomet,  (now  Warwick,)  on  account  of  their 
religion  or  lands,  '  and  to  permit  them  to  pass  peaceably 
through  their  government.'  Massachusetts  yielded  to  this 
order  with  great  reluctance,  and  an  agent  was  sent  to 
England  to  answer  to  the  charges  of  Gorton,  who,  assumed 
in  this  early  stage  of  their  political  existence  this  bold 
position,  '  that  the  doings  of  the  Massachusetts  colony 
were  not  subject  to  any  re-examination  in  England  !' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  251 

After  this,  Gorton  and  his  followers  enjoyed  their  lands 
in  quiet.  Gorton  was  again  in  Boston  in  1648,  but  being 
threatened  he  went  away.  He  afterwards  lived  in  tran- 
quillity to  a  great  age. 

Gorton  wqis  one  of  those  daring  spirits  which  this  en- 
thusiastic age  brought  forth.  He  appeared  at  a  period 
when  men,  relieved  from  the  thraldom  of  long  established 
creeds,  pursue  without  restraint  the  phantasies  of  their 
excited  imaginations,  as  well  as  the  sober  truths  of  the 
gospel.  The  vaunted  independence  of  opinion,  is  pro- 
ductive of  error  as  well  as  of  good,  and  the  crudities  of 
fanatics  will  disturb  the  world,  as  long  as  the  shouts  of 
the  multitude  shall  proclaim  the  triumph  either  of  the 
coxcomb  or  the  martyr.  It  has  remained  for  the  present 
age  to  achieve  the  consummation  of  that  divine  toleration 
which  Roger  Williams  preached  two  centuries  ago,  but 
yet  the  toleration  of  opinion  has  not  succeeded  the  tolera- 
tion of  law,  and  men  are  not  yet  willing  to  believe  that 
in  the  house  of  the  common  Father  '  there  are  many  man- 
sions.' 

We  may  glorify  ourselves  for  our  superior  intelligence, 
but  we  can  feel  but  little  pride  when  we  contrast  our 
wisdom  with  that  of  our  ancestors.  We  have  fanatics  as 
wild,  as  insane,  as  ignorant,  and  as  blasphemous  as  James 
Naylor  or  George  Fox.  The  Shakers,  Jemima  Wilkinson, 
Joanna  Southcott,  and  Richard  Brothers  birng  home  to 
our  minds,  the  mortifying  truth  that  if  we  are  more  tole- 
rant than  our  ancestors,  we  are  still  liable  to  witness  the 
excesses  of  folly  and  fanaticism  under  the  name  of  reli- 
gion. Even  now  a  sect  are  increasing  in  numbers  and 
respectability,  who  hold  to  the  practicability  of  conversing 
-while  on  earth,  with  the  beings  of  the  invisible  world,  and 
of  ascending  while  in  the  flesh,  to  the  heaven  of  the 
saints  ;  and  this  sect  are  for  the  most  part  men  of  learn- 


252     •     MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

ing,  intellect,  and  great  purity,  both  in  principles  and 
conduct.  However,  the  improvement  of  society  is  pro- 
gressive, the  march  of  man  is  onward.  Who  could  have 
believed  that  the  successors  of  the  early  Baptists  would 
have  been  spirited  and  generous  patrons  of  learning,  or 
that  the  greatest  donation  ever  made  in  America  for  the 
purposes  of  education,  would  have  been  from  the  hands 
of  a  Quaker  ! 

There  has  been  much  diversity  of  opinion  as  to  the 
doctrines  of  Gorton.  Whatever  they  might  have  been  in 
reality,  he  always  had  the  ingenuity  so  to  explain  them,  as 
to  satisfy  the  candid.  He  was  supercilious,  self-sufficient, 
insolent,  stubborn,  and  intractable,  but  ingenious,  plausi- 
ble, and  eloquent ;  and  although  he  might  not  have 
preached  any  doctrines  which  would  offend  the  expanded 
liberality  of  the  present  age,  yet  in  that,  he  experienced 
all  the  ire  which  is  engendered  in  bigoted  minds  from 
resistance  to  those  opinions  and  lights  which  they  are 
well  persuaded  are  from  heaven,  and  therefore  infallible. 

Secretary  Morton  represents  him  as  '  a  proud  and  pes- 
tilent seducer,  and  leavened  with  blasphemous  and  fam- 
alistical  opinions,  and  as  an  Atheist ;  that  he  and  his 
followers  "  blasphemed  the  Lord  Jesus  himself,  his  words 
and  ordinances  in  such  a  manner,  as  scarce  in  any  age 
any  heretics  or  apostates  have  done  the  like  ;  not  only 
abandoning  and  rejecting  all  civil  power  and  authority, 
except  moulded  according  to  their  own  fancies,  but  belch- 
ing out  errors  in  their  famalistical  allegories.  If,  (says 
he,)  I  may  so  call  them,  as,  to  speak  with  holy  reverence, 
they  rendered  the  Lord  Christ  no  more  than  an  imagina- 
tion ;  shunning  not  blasphemously  to  say,  that  Christ  was 
but  a  shadow,  and  resemblance  of  what  is  done  in  every 
christian  ;  that  Christ  was  incarnate  in  Adam,  and  was 
the  image  of  God  wherein  Adam  was  created ;  and  that 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  253 

his  being  born  afterwards  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  suffer- 
ing, was  but  a  manifestation  of  his  suffering  in  Adam  ; 
that  man  losing  God's  image,  was  the  death  of  Christ ; 
that  Christ  is  the  covenant  properly,  and  that  Faith  and 
Christ  are  all  one.  They  call  the  holy  word,  and  sermons 
of  salvation,  tales ;  the  Lord's  supper  an  abomination, 
and  a  spell ;  Baptism  vanity  and  abomination  j  the  min- 
isters of  the  word  necromancers,  &c."' 

'  He  was  (says  the  secretary,)  a  subtle  deceiver,  courteous 
in  his  carriage  to  all,  at  some  times  for  his  own  ends,  but 
soon  moved  with  passion,  and  so  lost  that  which  he  gained 
on  the  simple.'  He  calls  him  a  sordid  man,  and  one  that 
denies  a  future  existence. 

To  these  charges  Gorton  replied, —  '  In  that,'  says  he, 
you  declare  I  have  spoken  wotds,  (or  to  that  effect,)  that 
there  is  no  state  nor  condition  of  mankind  after  this 
life.  1  do  verily  believe  that  there  is  not  a  man,  woman 
or  child  upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  that  will  come  forth 
and  say,  that  ever  they  heard  any  such  words  come  from 
my  mouth,  and  I  appeal  to  God,  the  judge  of  all  secrets, 
that  there  was  never  such  a  thought  entertained  in  my 
heart.' 

'  And  whereas  you  say  I  am  become  a  sordid  man  in  my 
life  5  I  dare  be  so  bold  as  to  lay  my  conversation  among 
men  to  the  rules  of  humanity,  with  any  minister  among 
you,  in  all  the  passages  of  my  life,  which  God  hath 
brought  me  through,  from  my  youth  unto  this  day,  that  it 
hath  been  as  comely  and  innocent  as  his.  Whose  ox  or 
whose  ass  have  I  taken,  or  when  or  where  have  I  lived 
upon  other  men's  labors,  and  not  wrought  with  my  own 
hands  for  things  honest  in  the  sight  of  man,  and  to  eat 
my  own  bread. 

*  For  the  rest  of  the  expressions  you  charge  upon  us, 
you  falsely  apply  them.     We  never  called  sermons  of  sal- 


254  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

vation  tales;  nor  any  ordinances  of  the  Lord  an  abomina- 
tion or  vanity ;  nor  holy  ministers  necromancers.  We 
honor,  reverence,  and  practice  these  things.  And  how- 
ever you  term  me  a  belcher  out  of  errors,  I  would  have 
you  know,  that  I  hold  my  call  to  preach  the  gospel  of 
Christ,  not  inferior  to  any  minister  in  this  country,  though 
I  was  not  bred  up  in  the  schools  of  human  learning,  and 
I  bless  God  that  I  never  was  ;  least  I  had  been  drowned 
in  pride  and  ignorance,  through  Aristotle's  principles,  and 
other  heathen  philosophers,  as  millions  are,  and  have  been, 
and  ground  their  preaching  of  the  gospel  upon  human 
principles,  to  the  falsifying  of  the  word  of  God,  in  the 
ruin  of  men's  souls.  ,  Yet  this  I  doubt  not  of,  that  there 
has  been  as  much  true  use  made  of  the  languages  within 
this  twenty  years  past,  in  the  place  where  I  live,  as  hath 
been  in  any  church  in  New  England  :  I  know  the  manner 
of  your  preaching  very  well.' 

He  then  alludes  to  the  manner  in  which  his  preaching 
was  received  in  England,  —  the  great  favor  he  there 
enjoyed,  &c. 

It  is  probable  that  his  intolerable  insolence  excited  more 
irritation  and  prejudice  than  his  preaching,  and  incited 
his  enemies  in  many  cases  to  pervert  his  allegories  into 
blasphemies,  for  Letchmere,  (who  was  in  New  England 
about  the  time  that  Gorton  was  driven  from  Newport,) 
a  lawyer,  and  not  partial  to  the  religion  or  the  churches  of 
New  England,  says,  '  there  (Newport)  they  lately  whipt 
one  Master  Gorton,  a  grave  man,  for  denying  their  power 
and  abusing  some  of  the  magistrates  in  uncivil  terms  : 
the  governor,  Master  Coddington,  saying  in  court,  "  you 
that  are  for  the  king,  lay  hold  on  Gorton,"  and  he  again 
on  the  other  side  called  forth,  "  all  you  that  are  for  the 
king,  lay  hold  on  Coddington  ;  whereupon  Gorton  was 
banished  the  island,   so  with   his  wife  and    children    he 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  255 

went  to  Providence.  They  began  about  a  small  tres- 
pass of  swine,  but  it  is  thought  some  other  matter  was 
ingredient.' 

During  this  year,  (1638*)  Quinnipiack  which  had  been 
explored  in  the  preceding  year,  was  settled  and  called 
New  Haven,  and  it  existed  until  1665,  as  a  separate  colo- 
ny.    Tt  was  then  united  to  Connecticut. 

The  principal  founders  were  Theophilus  Eaton,  Esq., 
an  eminent  London  merchant  who  had  been  deputy 
governor  of  the  East  India  Company,  and  minister  to 
Denmark.  He  was  elected  the  first  governor.  John 
Davenport,  a  celebrated  minister,  their  first  pastor,  Sam- 
uel Eaton,  Thomas  Gregson,  Robert  Newman,  IVIatthew 
Gilbert,  Nathaniel  Turner,  Thomas  Fugill,  Francis  New- 
man, Stephen  Goodyear,  and  Joshua  Atwater.  Mr  Peter 
Prudden  was  also  an  early  adventurer  at  New  Haven. 

*  In  the  month  of  ApriL 


(       256       ) 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Progress  of  the  Settlements,  and  the  local  and  ecclesiastical  History  of  the 
town  of  Plymouth,  and  of  the  towns  of  Duxbury,  Scituate,  Taunton,  Sand- 
wich, Barnstable,  and  Yarmouth. — Governor  Bradford  re- elected. — First 
meeting  of  the  Committees  or  Deputies  from  the  several  towns  in  General 
Court. — Renewal  of  the  treaty  with  Massasoiet  and  his  son. — Marshfield 
incorporated. — Governor  Bradford  surrenders  the  Patent. — Extent  of  the 
towns. — Indian  Territory. — Literature. — Conclusion  of  the  first  part  of  the 
History. 

To  present  a  clear  view  of  the  circumstances  and  situa- 
tion of  the  Plymouth  colony  at  this  period,  when  a  great 
change  in  the  government  was  about  commencing,  which 
had  become  necessary  from  the  increase  of  population, 
and  the  remoteness  of  some  of  the  settlements  from  the 
seat  of  government  ;  —  the  local  and  ecclesiastical  history 
of  the  several  towns,  and  the  history  of  their  commence- 
ment and  progress  is  indispensable. 

PLYMOUTH. 

For  twelve  years  after  the  commencement  of  the 
settlement  of  Plymouth,  that  town  constituted  the  whole 
colony,  and  in  their  various  departments,  exercised  all 
those  functions  of  government  which  are  now  perform- 
ed in  towns,  counties,  and  commonwealths  :  —  but  lo- 
cal, municipal,  and  political  regulations  were  esteemed 
of  little  consequence  when  compared  with  ecclesias- 
tical rule.  The  doctrines  and  discipline  of  the  church 
were  far  more  important, in  the  eyes  of  the  pilgrims 
than  their  civil  privileges,  their  political  rights  as  secured 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  357 

by  a  free  constitution,  and  their  code  of  laws.  The  good 
of  the  church  was  with  them  the  supreme  law  of  the  land, 
but  being  a  trading  community  they  yielded  a  reluctant 
toleration  to  such  as  were  so  unfortunate  or  so  unwise  as 
to  keep  without  its  pale,  hence  some  civil  regulations  be- 
came necessary  to  restrain  the  ungodly,  but  the  censures 
of  the  church  were  held  to  be  sufficient  for  the  restraint 
of  its  members,  although  they  could  not  be  excepted  from 
the  provisions  and  penalties  of  a  general  law. 

The  Plymouth  church  was  formed  from  the  minority  of 
the  Leyden  church  and  the  two  churches  were  like  a  family 
separated  for  a  time,  but  expecting  a  reunion. 

The  state  of  the  colony  in  March,  1621,  has  been  al- 
ready related  : — at  that  time,  of  the  original  company 
consisting  of  one  hundred  and  one  but  fiftyfive  were  left 
alive,  and  before  the  arrival  of  the  second  vessel  the  For- 
tune, in  November,  1621,  four  more  had  died,  leaving  the 
number  of  survivors  61.  The  Fortune  brought  over  thir- 
tyfive  passengers  who  have  been  named.  In  July,  1623, 
arrived  the  Anne,  and  the  James. 

In  1623  the  lands  were  assigned  in  severalty,  to  be  cul- 
tivated by  families  as  has  been  related.  In  the  old  colony 
records,  the  situation  of  the  lands,  and  the  number  of 
acres  to  each  is  particularly  mentioned,  viz. 

'  The  fall's  of  their  grounds  which  came  first  over  in  the 
Mayflower,  according  as  their  lots  were  cast,  1623.    , 

The  number  of  acres  to  each  one.  The  number  of  acres  to  each  one. 

Robert  Cushman,*  1     Isaac  Allerton,  7 

Mr  William  Brewster,     .  6    John  Billingtpn,  3 

*  Mr  Cushman  embarked  in  the  Mayflower ;  but  after  she  put  back,  he  re- 
mained, but  it  seem«he  is  considered  as  having  been  one  of  the  company  in  the 
Mayflower. 

33 


258  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

William  Bradford,  3  Peter  Brown,  1 

Richard  Gardiner,  1  Samuel  Fuller,  2 

Francis  Cooke,  •    2  Joseph  Rogers,**  2 

George  Soule,  1 

These  lye  on  the  south  side  of  the  brook,  to  the  bay- 
wards. 

These  contain  tvventynine  acres. 

John  Rowland,  4    Edward  Leister,  1 

Stephen  Hopkins,  6     Gilbert  Winslow,  1 

Edward  Doten,  1     Samuel  Fuller,  jr.  3 

These  lye  on  the  south  side  of  the  brook,  to  the  wood- 
ward, opposite  to  the  former. 

These  contain  sixteen  acres,  besides  Hobbomock's 
ground,  which  lieth  between  Jo.  Howland's  and  Hopkins'. 

William  White,  5 

This  five  acres  lyeth  behind  the  fort  to  the  little  pond. 

Edward  Winslow,  ]  4    Marie  Hilton,t  (probably  Chilton,) 

Richard  Warren,  2     Capt.  Miles  Standish,  2 

John  Goodman,  Francis  Eaton,  4- 

John  Crackston,  Henry  Samson,  1 

John  Alden,  Humility  Cooper,  1 

These  lye  on  the  north  side  of  the  town  next  adjoining 
their  gardens  who  came  in  the  Fortune. 

The  fall's  of  their  grounds  who  came  in  the  Fortune 
according  as  their  lots  were  cast,  (1623). 

William  Hilton,|;  .     1     John  Adams,  1 

*  Supposed  by  Judge  Davis  to  have  been  a  son  of  Thomas  Rogers,  who  died 
the  first  winter. 

t  Supposed  to  have  been  the  daughter  of  James  Chilton,  married  John 
Winslow. 

t  In  Purchas'  Pilgrims,  part  iv.  1640,  (says  Judge  Davis,)  we  find  the  follow- 
ing letter  from  William  Hilton  to  a  kinsman  in  England. 

'  Loving  Cousin, — At  our  arrival  at  New  Plymouth,  in  New  England,  wee 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  359 

John  Winslow,  1     William  Tench,  1 

William  Coner,  1     John  Cannon,  1 

These  lie  to  the  sea,  eastward. 

The  following  lye  beyond  the  second  brook 

Hugh  Stacy,  1     Austin  Nicolas,.  1 

William  Beale,         }  Widow  Foord,  4 

Thomas  Cushmanj  S 

Fourteen  acres. 

William  Wright,   >                                   Clement  Briggs,  1 

William  Pitt,          \                                    James  Stewart,  1 

Robert  Hickes,                                      1     William  Palmer,  2 

Thomas  Prence,                                    1     Jonathan  Brewster,  1 

Stephen  Dean,                                       1     Bennet  Morgan,  1 

Moses  Simonson  (Simmons,)  >                Thomas  Flavell  and  his  Son,  2 

Philip  De  La  Noye  (Delano,)  5          "    Thomas  Morton,  1 

Edward  Bom|  Bsse,                              1     William  Bassett,  2 

Nineteen  acres. 

These  lye  beyond  the  first  brook  to  the  westward. 

found  our  friends  and  planters  in  good  health,  though  they  were  left  sick  and 
weak,  with  very  small  means  ;  the  Indians  round  about  us  are  peaceable  and 
friendly  ;  the  country  very  pleasant  and  temperate,  yielding  naturally  of  itself 
great  store  of  fruits,  as  vines  of  divers  sorts,  in  great  abundance.  There  is, 
likewise,  walnuts,  chestnuts,  smallnuts,  and  plums,  with  much  variety  of  flow- 
ers, roots  and  herbs,  no  less  pleasant  than  wholesome  and  profitable.  No  place 
hath  more  gooseberries  and  strawberries,  nor  better  •,  timber,  of  all  sorts  you 
have  in  England,  doth  cover  the  land,  that  affords  beasts  of  divers  sorts,  and 
great  flocks  of  turkies,  quails,  pigeons  and  partridges;  many  great  lakes, 
abounding  with  fish,  fowl,  beaver  and  otters.  The  sea  affords  us  great  plenty 
of  all  excellent  sorts  of  sea-fish,  as  the  rive<rs  and  isles  doth  variety  of  wild- 
fowl of  most  useful  sorts.  Mines  we  find  to  our  thinking,  but  neither  the 
goodnesnor  quality  we  know.  Better  grain  cannot  be  than  the  Indian  corn,  if 
we  will  plant  it  upon  as  a  good  ground  as  a  man  need  desire.  We  are  all  free- 
holders ;  the  rent  day  doth  not  trouble  us,  and  all  those  good  blessings  we  have, 
of  which  and  what  we  list  for  taking. 

Our  company  are,  for  the  most  part,  very  religious,  honest  people  ;  the  wor 
of  God  sincerely  taught  us  every  Sabbath  ;  so  that  I  know  not  anything  a  con 
tented  mind  can  here  want.     I  desire  your  friendly  care  to  send  my  wife  and 
children  to  me,  where  I  wish  all  the  frieids  I  have  in  England,  and  so  I  rest 
j^jur  loving  kinsman,  William  Hilton. 


260         MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

The  fall's  of  their  grounds  which  came  over  in  the  ship 
called  the  Anne,  according  as  their  lots  were  cast,  (1623. 
James  Band,  1 

These  following  lie  beyond  the  brook  to  Shawberry  HilL 

Edmund  Flood,  1    Francis  Cooke,  4 

Christopher  Conant,  1 

George  Morton,  >  Thomas  Morton,  jr.  1 

Exp3rience  Mitchell,  j  William  Hilton's  wife  and  two  chil- 

Christian  Penn,  1  dren,  3 


These  butt  against  the  swamp  and  reed  ponds. 


Francis  Sprague,  3     Goodwife  Flavell,  1 

Edward  Burcher,  2    Manasseh  and  John  Faunce,  2 

John  Jeimings,  5 

These  to  the  sea,  eastward. 

AUce  Bradford,                                   1  Patience  and  Fear  Brewster,  with 

Robert  Hickes,  his  wife  and  children,  4            Robert  Long,  3 

Bridget  Fuller,                                     1  William  Heard,  1 

Ellen  Newton,                                     1  Miles  Standish,  1 

This  goeth  in  with  a  corner  by  the  pond. 

These  following  lye  on  the  other  side  of  the  town  to- 
ward Eele  river. 

Marie  Bucket,  adjoining  to  Joseph  Cuthbert  Cuthbertson,  g 

Rogers,  1  Anthony  Anable,  4 

Mr  Oldham  and  those  joined  with  Thomas  Tilden,  3 

him,  .  10  Richard  Warren,  6 

>  Bangs,  4 

Robert  Radcliffe,  beyond  the  swamp  and  stony  ground,  4 

Nicholas  Snow,  1     Mr  Perres,  two  servants, 

Anthony  Dixe,  Ralph  Walen, 

These  butt  against  Hobb's  hole. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  261 

North  side.  South  side. 

Edward  Holinan,  one  acre,  1  Stephen  Tracy,  three  acres,  3 

Frances,  wife  to  William  Palmer,  1  Thomas  Clarke,  one  acre,  1 

Josiah  Pratt,      >  2  Robert  Bartlett,  one  acre,  1 
Phineas  Pratt,  ) 

At  the  close  of  the  year  1624,  the  number  of  souls  in 
the  colony  was  one  hundred  and  eighty,  who  were  then 
all  dwelling  within  the  town.  The  planters  had  some 
cattle*  and  goats,  and  much  swine  and  poultry.  Thirtytwo 
dwelling  houses  had  been  erected.  The  town  was  impaled 
for  half  a  mile  in  circumference.  A  well  built  fort  was 
on  the  hill,  surmounted  by  a  watch  tower.  For  the  last 
three  years  the  health  of  the  colony  had  been  remarkable, 
and  not  one  of  the  first  planters  had  died.  A  ship  of  one 
hundred  and  eighty  tons  had  been  freighted.  The  gen- 
eral stock  employed  by  the  adventurers  to  Plymouth 
amounted  £7000.  At  Cape  Anne,  a  plantation  had  been 
commenced  by  people  from  Dorchester  in  England  which 
they  held  of  the  Plymouth  people,  and  a  fishing  stage  was 
erected  there. 

On  the  22d  of  May,  1627,  it  is  believed  that  every  family 
and  person  in  the  town,  (and  the  town  was  at  that  time 
the  colony)  can  be  ascertained  from  a  record  of  the  divis- 
ion of  the  cattle. 


THE    FAMILIES    WERE 

Francis  Cooke,  Isaac  AUerton, 

Hester  Cooke,  his  wife.  Fear  Allerton,  his  wife, 

John  Cooke,  Bartholomew  Allerton, 

Jacob  Cooke,  Mary  Allerton, 

Jane  Cooke,  Sarah  Allerton. 
Hester  Cooke, 
Mary  Cooke. 


262 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 


Cuthbert  Cuthbertson^ 
Sarah  Cuthbertson, 
Samuel  Cuthbertson. 


John  Adams, 
Eleanor  Adams, 
James  Adams, 


Mary  Priest, 
Sarah  Priest. 

Miles  Standish, 
Barbara  Standish,  his  wife, 
Charles  Standish, 
Alexander  Standish, 
John  Standish. 

Edward  Winslow, 
Susannah  Winslow,  his  wife, 
John  Winslow, 
Edward  Winslow, 
Resolved  White, 
Peregrine  White. 

John  Rowland, 

Elizabeth  Rowland,  his  wife, 

John  Rowland,  jr. 

Desire  Rowland. 


John  Winslow, 
Mary  Winslow. 

William  Bassett, 
Elizabeth  Bassett, 
William  Bassett,  jr. 
Elizabeth  Bassett,  jr. 

Francis  Sprague, 
Anna  Sprague, 
Mercy  Sprague. 

Stephen  Ropkins, 
Elizabeth  Ropkins,  his  wife, 
Giles  Hopkins, 
Caleb  Ropkins, 
Deborah  Ropkins. 

Nicholas  Snow, 
Constance  Snow. 


John  Alden, 
Priscilla  Alden, 
Elizabeth  Alden, 
John  Alden. 

William  Brewster, 
Love  Brewster, 
Wrestling  Brewster, 
Jonathan  Brewster, 
Lucretia  Brewster, 
William  Brewster, 
Mary  Brewster, 

Thomas  Prince, 
Patience  Prince, 
Rebecca  Prince, 
Humilitie  Cooper, 
Hemi  Samson. 


William  Palmer, 
Frances  Palmer,  his  wife, 
William  Palmer,  jr. 

John  Billlngton, 
Helen  Billington, 
Francis  Billington. 

Samuel  Fuller, 
Bridget  Fuller, 
Samuel  Fuller,  jr. 

Peter  Browne, 
Martha  Browne, 
Mary  Browne. 

John  Ford, 
Martha  Ford. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 


263 


Anthony  Anable, 
Jane  Anable, 
Sarah  Anable, 
Hannah  Anable, 
Damaris  Hopkins. 

Richard  Warren, 
Elizabeth  Warren,  his  wife, 
Nathaniel  Warren, 
Joseph  Warren, 
Mary  Warren, 
Ann  Warren, 
Sarah  Warren, 
Elizabeth  Warren, 
Abigail  Warren, 
John  Billington. 

George  Sowle, 
Mary  Sowle, 
Zaccharirh  Sowle. 

Francis  Eaton, 
Christian  Eaton,  his  wife, 
Samuel  Eaton, 
Rahell  Eaton. 

Stephen  Tracy, 
Triphosa  Tracy, 
Sarah  Tracy, 
Rebecca  Tracy. 

Ralph  Wallen, 
Joyce  Wallen, 

Sarah  Morton. 

William  Bradford,  the  Governor, 
Alice  Bradford,  his  wife, 
William  Bradford,  jr. 
Mercy  Bradford. 

Manasses  Kempton, 
Julian  Kempton. 


Nathaniel  Morton, 
John  Morton, 
Ephraim  Morton, 
Patience  Morton. 

John  Jenne, 
Sarah  Jenne,  his  wife, 
Samuel  Jenne, 
Abigail  Jenne, 
Sarah  Jenne. 

Robert  Hicks, 
Margaret  Hicks, 
Samuel  Hicks, 
Ephraim  Hicks, 
Lydia  Hicks, 
Phebe  Hicks. 

Moses  Simonson,  (Simmons,) 

Philip  De  La  Noye,  (Delano.) 

Experience  Mitchell, 

John  Faunce, 

Joshua  Pratt, 

Phineas  Pratt, 

Edward  Bompassee,    (Bumpus, 

Bump,) 
John  Crackstone, 
Abraham  Peirce, 
Thomas  Clarke, 
Clement  Briggs, 
Edward  Doten,  (Dotey.) 
Edward  Holdman,  (Holman.) 
Richard  More, 
John  Shaw, 
Robert  Bartlett, 
Thomas  Prence, 
Joseph  Rogers, 
Thomas  Cushman, 
William  Latham, 
Stephen  Deane, 
Edward  Bangs, 


264 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 


It  evidently  appears  that  between  the  last  part  of  the 
year  1624,  and  the  22d  of  May  1627,  there  had  been  a 
decrease  of  numbers.  This  may  be  partially  accounted 
for,  from  the  expulsion  of  Oldham  and  Lyford,  and  their 
followers,  and  the  removal  of  Mr  Conant  and  some  of  his 
friends,  and  probably  a  few  had  begun  to  settle  in  the 
surrounding  wilderness  who  took  no  share  in  the  cattle. 
It  is  somewhat  singular  that  the  name  of  Carver  does  not 
appear  in  this  list.  The  family  of  Governor  Carver  were 
numerous,  and  this  name  is  frequent  now,  and  is  supposed 
to  be  borne  by  none  except  by  the  descendants  of  the 
governor.  Gilbert  Winslow  a  brother  of  Governor  Win- 
slow  is  not  mentioned.* 


*  A  catalogue  is  subjoined  of  the  names  then  extant  in  the  colony,  and  the 
numbers  which  bore  them,  male  and  female. 


Male. 

Female. 

Male. 

Female. 

Adams, 

2 

1 

Fuller, 

2 

1 

Anable, 

1 

3 

Faunce, 

1 

Allerton, 

2 

3 

Ford, 

1 

1 

Alden, 

2 

2 

Rowland, 

2 

2 

Basset, 

2 

2 

Hopkins, 

3 

3 

Brewster, 

4 

3 

Hickes, 

3 

3 

Billington, 

3 

1 

Holdman, 

1 

Browne, 

1 

2 

Jenney, 

2 

3 

Bradford, 

2 

2 

Kempton, 

1 

1 

Bompassee, 

1 

Latham, 

1 

Briggs, 

1 

Mitchell, 

1 

Bartlett, 

1 

Morton, 

S 

2 

Bangs, 

1 

More, 

1 

Cooper, 

1 

Priest, 

2 

Cooke, 

3 

4 

Prence, 

2 

2 

Cuthbertson, 

2 

1 

Pratt, 

2 

Crackstone, 

1 

Palmer, 

2 

1 

Clarke, 

1 

Standish, 

4 

1 

Cushman, 

1 

Sowle, 

2 

I 

De  La  Noye, 

,     1 

Simonson, 

1 

Deane, 

1 

Sampson, 

1 

Doten, 

1 

Peirce, 

1 

Eaton, 

2 

2 

Shaw, 

1 

MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  355 

It  has  been  already  related  that  the  emigrants  from 
Holland  in  the  constant  expectation  of  Robinson's  arrival, 
omitted  to  ordain  a  pastor  or  teaching  elder.  Robinson 
although  in  Holland,  was  in  fact  the  pastor  of  the  Ply- 
mouth church  and  would  have  administered  his  office  had 
he  arrived,  without  any  new  ordination,  consecration,  or 
ceremony.  His  absence  was  the  less  regretted  inasmuch 
as  Brewster  the  ruling  elder  was  eminently  qualified  not 
only  for  his  own,  but  for  the  pastoral  office. 

After  the  death  of  Robinson,  (in  March,  1625)  it  was 
the  universal  wish  of  the  church  that  Brewster  should 
succeed  him,  but  he  steadily  refused  an  ordination  as  pas- 
tor, but  did  in  fkct  perform  the  duties  of  both  offices. 

The  arrival  of  Lyford  in  1624,  and  his  expulsion  from 
Plymouth,  and  the  miserable  termination  of  his  career 
have  already  been  noticed.  He  preached  occasionally  at 
Plymouth,  but  was  called  to  no  ecclesiastical  office. 

In  1628  the  company  in  England  as  has  also  already 
been  related,  sent  over  one  Rogers,  intending  that  he  should 
officiate  as  pastor,  but  his  utter  unfitness,  and  his  eventual 
insanity,  induced  the  Plymouth  church  to  send  him  back 
to  England  at  their  own  charge. 

Sprague,  1  2      Warren,  3  6 

Snow,  1  1       Wallen,  1  1 

Rogers,  1  White,  2 

Tracy,  1  3       Winslow,  4  2 

The  names  of  AUerton,  Cuthbertson,  Priest,  and  Wallen  are  believed  to  be 
extinct. 

Holdman  is  changed  into  Holman,  and  Simonson  into  Simmons. 

The  names  of  Bompasse,  De  La  Noye,  and  Doten,  are  unquestionably  of 
French  origin.  The  persons  who  originally  bore  them  were  probably  admitted 
into  the  Plymouth  company  from  amongst  the  French  Protestants  resident  at 
Leyden. 

They  have  been  changed  by  English  pronunciation  and  usage  into  Bumpus  and 
Bump,  Delano  and  Doty. 

Many  of  the  other  names  have  not  been  unknown  to  fame,  and  have  extend- 
ed far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  colony. 

34 


266  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

In  1629,  Ralph  Smith  arrived  at  Naumkeag.  He  was 
one  of  four  puritan  ministers  sent  out  by  the  Massachusetts 
company.  Another,  (Mr  Bright)  accompanied  Thomas 
Graves  to  Charlestown,  and  became  the  first  pastor  of  that 
ancient  Church.  Higginson  and  Skelton  as  pastor  and 
teaching  elder,  remained  at  Salem.  Smith  who  was  held  in 
slight  estimation,  finding  his  services  were  not  required  at 
Salem,  retired  to  Nantasket,  where  a  settlement  had  been 
made  by  Oldham.  Finding  himself  in  a  wretched  situa- 
tion there,  he  besought  some  Plymouth  people  who  cas- 
ually visited  Nantasket,  to  take  him  to  Plymouth,  which 
they  did.  Being  a  man  of  piety  and  good  intentions,  his 
want  of  capacity  was  overlooked,  and  he  was  ordained 
(probably  in  1630)  the  first  pastor  of  the  ancient  church 
of  Plymouth,  and  remained  there  five  or  six  years. 

His  controversy  with  Gorton  has  already  been  noticed. 

In  1635  as  he  was  a  person  of  '  low  gifts  and  parts,'  he 
was  induced  by  his  own  sense  of  his  incapacity  and  the 
persuasions  of  the  people  to  resign  his  pastoral  office, 
and  after  residing  some  time  at  Plymouth  was  invited  in 
1645  to  preach  to  a  new  church  which  had  been  formed 
at  Manchester  in  Massachusetts. 

The  want  of  qualifications  in  Smith  was  less  regarded, 
as  Plymouth  was  peculiarly  fortunate  for  a  long  period  in 
having  some  of  the  most  eminent  of  the  puritan  preachers 
as  sojourners  with  them,  who  taught  and  labored  with  as 
much  assiduity,  vigilance,  and  zeal,  as  though  they  had 
been  regularly  inducted  into  the  higher  ecclesiastical 
offices. 

In  the  summer  of  1631,  the  celebrated  Roger  Williams 
who  afterwards  founded  Providence  came  to  Plymouth. 
He  arrived  at  Boston  in  the  preceding  year,  and  was  soon 
called  to  the  office  of  teacher  by  the  church  at  Salem, 
but  becoming  discontented  in  consequence  of  some  differ- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  267 

ence  of  opinion  between  him  and  Mr  Skelton  the  pastor, 
removed  to  Plymouth. 

Of  his  life  in  England  but  little  is  known,  only  that  he 
was  by  birth  a  Welshman,  liberally  educated,  and  had 
been  for  a  time  a  pupil  of  Sir  Edward  Coke,  the  illustrious 
lawyer. 

He  resided  at  Plymouth  about  three  years,  and  his  tal- 
ents were  greatly  admired.  At  length  he  discovered  some 
eccentricity  in  his  opinions  and  doctrines,  and  being  un- 
successful in  converting  many  to  his  sentiments,  in  1634 
he  requested  the  Plymouth  church  to  dismiss  him  to  the 
church  at  Salem. 

Many  who  admired  his  genius  \\ere  unwilling  to  lose 
him,  but  the  calm  and  sagacious  Brewster  foreseeing  the 
difficulties  and  divisions  which  might  grow  up  in  the 
church  if  he  remained,  and  having  witnessed  the  course 
of  John  Smith  at  Amsterdam,  in  becoming  at  first  a  rigid 
separatist,  and  finally  an  Anabaptist,  he  predicted  that  the 
opinions  of  Williams  would  bring  him  to  the  like  result, 
and  by  his  persuasions  the  church  at  Plymouth  were 
induced  to  dismiss  him  ;  but  so  great  was  the  attachment 
which  was  cherished  for  Williams,  that  many  followed  him 
to  Salem.* 


*  The  following  extract  from  Governor  Winthrop's  Journal,  describes  the 
mode  of  conducting  public  worship  while  Williams  was  at  Plymouth. 

'  On  the  25th  of  October,  1632,  Governor  Winthrop  and  Mr  Wilson,  the  pastor 
of  the  church  at  Boston,  and  the  two  captains,  went  by  water  to  Wessagusset, 
and  then  set  forth  on  foot  through  the  woods  for  Plymouth.  Governor  Brad- 
ford and  Mr  Brewster,  and  several  others,  went  out  of  the  town  to  meet  them, 
and  they  were  entertained  at  Governor  Bradford's  house.  On  the  Lord's  day 
they  partook  of  the  sacrament  together,  and  in  the  afternoon,  Mr  Roger  Wil- 
liams,  according  to  the  custom,  proposes  a  question,  to  which  the  pastor,  Mr 
Smith,  speaks  briefly ;  then  Mr  Williams  prophecies,  (or  explains,)  and  after 
the  Governor  of  Plymouth,  (who  had  studied  the  Hebrew  language  and  an- 
tiquities,) speaks  to  the  question  ;  after  him  the  elder  (a  man  of  learning;)  then 
two  or  three  more  of  the   congregation ;  then  the   elder,  (agreeably  to  Acts 


268  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

He  arrived  there  just  previous  to  the  death  of  Mr  Skel- 
ton,  and  again  assisted  him  in  the  work  of  the  ministry. 
Mr  Skelton  died,  and  in  a  short  time  after,  Williams  was 
called  by  the  church  at  Salem  to  supply  his  place. 

The  government  of  Massachusetts  took  the  alarm  and 
endeavored  to  prevent  his  settlement,  but  their  efforts  were 
vain. 

Williams  soon  began  to  preach  doctrines  which  at  that 
time  were  considered  '  abominable,'  and  '  heretical.' 

He  held  that  it  was  unlawful  for  an  unregenerate  man 
to  pray,  or  to  take  an  oath  even  of  fidelity  to  the  govern- 
ment, and  that  it  was  unlawful  '  for  a  godly  man  to  have 
communion  either  in  fimily  prayer  or  in  an  oath  with  such 
as  they  judged  unregenerate,'  refusing  to  take  an  oath 
himself,  and  advising  others  to  do  the  same,  '  and  that 
it  was  not  lawful  to  hear  the  godly  ministers  of  England.' 
—  But  he  brought  forth  one  truth,  which  broke  through 
the  gloom  of  the  age  like  a  sunbeam, —  like  the  dawn  of 
the  morning  light,  after  a  night  of  thick  darkness,  and 
which  taken  in  connexion  with  the  circumstances  under 
which  it  was  proclaimed,  the  times  in  which  he  lived,  the 
notions  of  those  with  whom  he  consorted,  and  even  his 
own  fanaticism  seems  but  little  less  than  the  inspiration 
which  in  '  olden  time,'  filled  the  bosoms  of  those  holy 
men  who  were  selected  to  proclaim  the  eternal  truths  of 
the  Almighty  to  those  who  were  hard  of  heart,  and  des- 
perate in  unbelief.  '  He  affirmed  that  the  magistrates  had 
nothing  to  do  in  matters  of  the  first  table,  but  only  the 

xiil.  14,15,  &c.)  desires  Governor  Winthrop  and  Mr  Wilson  to  speak  to  it, 
which  they  do  :  when  this  is  ended,  the  deacon,  Mr  Fuller,  puts  the  congrega- 
tion in  mind  of  their  duty  of  contribution ;  whereupon  the  governor  and  all  the 
rest  go  down  to  the  deacon's  seat,  and  put  it  in  the  bag,  and  then  return.'  This 
was  the  practice  of  Robinson's  church  at  Leyden,  and  was  founded  on  the 
practice  of  the  primitive  church  of  Corinth,  as  described  and  regulated  by  the 
Apostle  Paul,  but  it  was  afterwards  abandoned.  After  remaining  five  days  at 
Plymouth,  Governor  Winthrop  and  his  companions  departed  for  Boston. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  2G9 

second ;  and  that  there  should  be  a  general  and  unlimited 
toleration  of  all  religions,  and  for  any  man  to  be  punished 
for  matters  of  his  conscience  was  per'secution  /' 

He  possessed  sufficient  influence  with  his  own  church  to 
obtain  their  consent  to  send  letters  of  admonition  to  the 
churches  of  Boston,  Charlestown,  and  Newtown. 

The  government  of  Massachusetts  became  more  alarmed. 
Cotton,  Hooker,  and  all  the  most  eminent  ministers  at- 
tempted to  reason  him  out  of  his  errors,  but  opposition 
made  him  inexorable.  At  last,  he  caused  a  letter  to  be 
delivered  to  his  own  church,  in  which  he  threatened  in 
absolute  terms  that  if  the  church  of  Salem  would  not 
separate  from  the, churches  not  only  of  '  Old  England,' 
but  of  '  New  England,'  he  would  separate  from  them. 
Hitherto  he  had  been  sustained  by  his  own  church,  but 
they  now  began  to  be  alarmed,  and  most  of  them  aban- 
doned him,  whereupon  he  denounced  them  as  anti-chris- 
tian,  and  refused  any  longer  to  commune  with  them  :  — 
neither  would  he  pray,  nor  give  thanks  with  his  wife  and 
family  because  they  still  attended  the  meetings  of  the 
church.  He  kept  a  meeting  in  his  own  house,  where 
many  of  his  adherents  resorted  to  worship.  Their  num- 
bers continuing  to  augment,  the  magistrates  fearful  of 
distractions  amongst  the  people,  after  attempting  with 
much  earnestness  to  reclaim  him,  proceeded  at  length  to 
banish  him  from  the  colony  '  as  a  disturber  of  the  peace 
both  in  the  church  and  commonwealth.' 

The  civil  authority  were  the  more  alarmed  as  Williams 
had  asserted  that  '  the  king  of  England  had  no  right  to 
take  the  lands  in  America  from  the  Indians  and  give  them 
to  his  own  subjects,'  and  had  induced  Endicot  the  military 
commander  to  cut  the  cross  of  St  George  from  the  flag  of 
the  colony. 

Williams  submitted  quietly  to  his  sentence,  and  attend- 
ed by  a  few  followers  who  adhered  to  him  in  every  fortune, 


270  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Went  forth  into  the  wilderness  and  seated  himself  at  See^ 
konk,  and  then  passed  tho^river  into  the  Indian  country, 
and  founded  Providence  as  has  been  already  related. 

He  verified  Brewster's  prediction,  and  from  a  rigid  sep- 
aratist became  an  Anabaptist,  renouncing  the  baptism 
which  he  had  received  in  his  infancy.  His  adherents 
changed  with  him,  but  he  soon  became  dissatisfied,  and 
told  them  '  that  he  was  out  of  the  way  himself  and  had 
misled  them,  for  he  did  not  find  that  there  was  any  upon 
earth  that  could  administer  baptism,  and  therefore  their 
last  baptism  was  a  nullity  as  well  as  their  first  ;  and  there- 
fore they  must  lay  down  all  and  wait  for  the  coming  of 
the  apostles.'  In  consequence  of  this  new  exposition  of 
Williams,  his  church  was  dissolved  and  its  members  be- 
came seekers. 

It  is  easy  to  conceive  that  one  like  Williams,  with  an 
ardent  and  sanguine  temper,  an  honest  zeal  for  the  truth, 
an  acute  and  metaphysical  mind,  and  a  bold  imagination, 
might  pass  through  these  various  changes  of  opinion 
without  justly  incurring  the  imputation  of  vanity  or  in- 
sincerity. In  all  his  changes  he  steadily  adhered  to  his 
principles  of  toleration,  and  this  alone  is  enough  to  re- 
deem his  memory  with  the  wise  and  humane. 

His  colony  became  the  asylum  of  the  persecuted,  and 
all  were  received  with  the  like  humanity,  and  many  had 
reason  to  bless  the  kindness  and  charity  of  this  illustrious 
exile.  The  Indians  reverenced  him  for  his  justice  and 
philanthropy.* 

At  the   commencement  of  the  difficulties  with  the  Pe- 

*  Although  Williams  was  perfectly  disinterested  and  humane,  it  would 
nevertheless  seem  that  he  experienced  both  selfishness  and  ingratitude  from  his 
own  followers.  The  lands  of  the  Providence  plantations  were  bought  by  Mr 
Williams  himself,  and  then  generously  divided  amongst  his  followers  without 
any  consideration  from  them.  In  1654,  he  preferred  a  remonstrance  to  the 
town  of  Providence, '  ia  which  he  expostulates  with  the  people  for  their  disor- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  27 1 

quots,  the  services  of  Williams  were  inestimable.  By  his 
personal  influence  with  the  Narragansetts  he  prevented 
them  from  joining  the  Pequots.  In  the  management  of 
this  dangerous  business  he  discovered  uncommon  address, 
and  the  most  intrepid  courage.  When  the  Narragansetts 
were  strongly  suspected  of  being  inclined  to  hostilities, 
he  repaired  to  their  quarters  and  found  them  undecided, 
and  the  Pequot  ambassadors  urged  them  to  put  him  to 
death,  and  thus  provoke  the  war,  but  undismayed  by  the 
perils  which  surrounded  h:«ai,  he  persisted  at  the  hazard 
of  his  own  life  in  persuading  the  Narragansetts  to  the 
English  alliance  and  finally  succeeded. 

The  junction  of  the  Pequots  and  Narragansetts  would 
probably  have  terminated  in  the  destruction  of  all  the 
English  settlements,  and  the  extermination  of  the  English 
race,  and  this  great  service  did  he  perform  for  Massachu- 
setts and  Plymouth,  immediately  after  he  had  been  ban- 
ished from  the  jurisdictions  of  one,  and  denied  a  resting 
place  in  the  other. 

ders  and  great  animosities  ;  and  upbraids  them  with  their  great  ingratitude  to 
heaven,  and  to  himself.'  'I  am  (says  he,)  hke  a  man  in  a  fog  ;  I  know  not  well 
how  to  steer  ;  I  fear  to  run  upon  rocks  at  home,  after  having  had  many  trials 
abroad ;  I  fear  to  run  quite  backwards,  and  to  undo  all  that  I  have  been  this 
long  time  undoing  myself  to  do  :  to  wit,  to  keep  up  the  name  of  a  people,  a 
free  people  ;  not  enslaved  in  body  or  soul,  to  the  bondages  and  iron  yokes  of 
oppression,  both  of  the  English  and  barbarians  about  us  ;  nor  to  the  divisions 
and  disorders  within  ourselves.  Since  I  set  the  first  step  of  any  English  foot 
in  these  wild  parts,  and  have  maintained  a  chargeable  and  hazardous  corres- 
pondence with  the  barbarians,  and  spent  almost  five  years'  time  with  the  State 
of  England  to  keep  off  the  rage  of  the  English  against  us,  what  have  I  reaped 
of  being  the  root,  of  being  the  stepping  stone  to  so  many  families  and  towns 
about  us,  but  grief,  and  sorrow,  and  bitterness  ?  I  have  been  charged  with 
folly,  for  that  freedom  and  liberty  I  have  always  stood  for  ;  I  say  liberty  and 
equality,  both  in  land  and  government.  I  have  been  blamed  for  parting  with 
Moshasuck,  and  afterwards  Pawtucket,  which  were  mine  own  as  truly  as  any 
man's  coat  upon  his  back,  without  reserving  to  myself  one  foot  of  land,  or  one 
inch  of  voice,  more  than  to  my  servants,  or  strangers.  It  hath  been  told  me 
that  I  have  labored  for  a  licentious  and  contentious  people, — that  I  have  foolishly 
parted  with  many  advantages,  &c.' 


272  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

His  principles  of  toleration  were  not  of  that  licentious 
character  which  made  no  distinction  between  vice  and 
virtue,  and  tolerated  evil  as  well  as  good,  but  were  sound, 
practical,  and  wise.  He  explains  them  in  his  communi- 
cation to  the  town  of  Providence. 

'  Loving  friends  and  neighbors, —  It  pleaseth  God  yet  to 
continue  this  great  liberty  of  our  town  meetings,  for 
which  we  ought  to  be  humbly  thankful,  and  to  improve 
these  liberties  to  the  praise  of  the  Giver,  and  to  the  peace 
and  welfare  of  the  town  and  colony,  without  our  own 
private  ends.  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  present  you  with 
this  my  impartial  testimony,  and  answer  to  a  paper  sent 
you  the  other  day  from  my  brother,*  that  it  is  blood-guilt- 
iness, and  against  the  rule  of  the  gospel,  to  execute  judg- 
ment upon  transgressors,  against  the  private  or  public 
weal.  That  ever  I  should  speak,  or  write  a  tittle  that 
tends  to  such  an  infinite  liberty  of  conscience,  is  a  mis- 
take ;  and  which  I  have  ever  disclaimed  and  abhorred. 
To  prevent  such  mistakes,  I  at  present  shall  only  propose 
this  case.  There  goes  many  a  ship  to  sea,  with  many  a 
hundred  souls  in  one  ship,  whose  weal  and  woe  is  com- 
mon ;  and  is  a  true  picture  of  a  commonwealth,  or  an 
human  combination,  or  society.  It  hath  fallen  out  some- 
times, that  both  Papists  and  Protestants,  Jews  and  Turks, 
may  be  embarked  into  one  ship;  upon  which  supposal,  I 
do  affirm,  that  all  the  liberty  of  conscience  that  ever  I 
pleaded  for,  turns  upon  these  two  hinges,  that  none  of  the 
Papists,  Protestants,  Jews,  or  Turks,  be  forced  to  come  to 
the  ship's  prayers  or  worship ;  nor,  secondly,  compelled 
from  their  own  particular  prayers  or  worship,  if  they  prac- 
tise any.     I  further   add,   that  I   never  denied   that,   not- 

*  Quere.     Does  he  mean   his  christian  brother  or  his   natural  brother?     If 
his  natural  brother,  was  it  Richard  Williams  of  Taunton, 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  373 

withstanding  this  liberty,  the  commander  of  this  ship 
ought  to  command  the  ship's  course  ;  yea,  and  also  to 
command  that  justice,  peace,  and  sobriety,  be  kept  and 
practised,  both  among  the  seamen  and  all  the  passengers. 
If  any  seamen  refuse  to  perform  their  service,  or  passen- 
gers to  pay  their  freight ;  or  if  any  refuse  to  help  in  per- 
son or  purse,  towards  the  common  charges,  or  defence  ;  if 
any  refuse  to  obey  the  common  laws  and  orders  of  the 
ship,  concerning  their  ^common  peace  and  preservation  ; 
if  any  shall  mutiny  and  rise  up  against  their  commanders 
and  officers  ;  if  any  shall  preach  or  write,  that  there  ought 
to  be  no  commanders  nor  officers,  because  all  are  equal 
in  Christ,  therefore  no  masters,  nor  officers,  no  laws,  nor 
orders,  no  corrections,  nor  punishments,  —  I  say,  I  never 
denied,  but  in  such  cases,  whatever  is  pretended,  the 
commander  or  commanders  may  judge,  resist,  compel,  and 
punish  such  transgressors,  according  to  their  deserts,  and 
merits.  This,  if  seriously  and  honestly  minded,  may,  if 
it  so  please  the  Father  of  Lights,  let  in  some  light,  to 
such  as  willingly  shut  not  their  eyes. 

'  I  remain,  studious  of  our  common  peace  and  liberty. 

'  Roger  Williams.' 

In  a  government  so  free  as  that  of  Rhode  Island,  pro- 
ductive of  many  goodly  fruits,  it  was  impossible  to  avoid 
some  weeds.  The  licentiousness  of  faction  is  ever  a  con- 
comitant of  perfect  freedom.  Mr  Williams  did  not  es- 
cape the  tongue  of  slander.  '  However,  (says  the  Author 
of  the  Account  of  Providence,)  in  imitation  of  a  noble 
Greek,  he  thanks  God  that  he  had  been  the  author  of  that 
very  liberty,  by  which  they  dared  to  abuse  him  ;  and  ex- 
postulates with  the  people  in  these  words, —  'I  am  told 
that  I  am  a  traitor,  and  as  good  as  banished  by  yourselves, 
that  both  sides  wished  I  might  have  never  landed  here 
agaiu,  that  so,  the  fire  of  contention  might  have  had  no 
35 


274  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.     ' 

stop  in  burning  ;  I,  at  last,  was  forced  to  say,  they  might 
well  silence  all  complaints,  if  I  once  began  to  complain, 
who  was  importunately  drawn  from  my  employment,  and 
sent  so  vast  a  distance  from  my  family,  to  do  your  work 
of  a  costly  and  high  nature,  for  so  long  a  time ;  and  there 
left  to  starve,  or  steal,  or  beg,  or  borrow.  But  blessed  be 
God,  who  gave  me  favor  to  borrow  one  while,  and  to  work 
another,  and  thereby  to  pay  your  debts,  and  to  come  over 
with  your  credit  and  honor,  as  your  agent ;  yet  1  may  say, 
you  seem  to  have  provided  a  sponge  to  wipe  off  all  your 
scores  and  debts.  But  gentlemen,  blessed  be  God,  who 
faileth  not,  and  blessed  be  his  name  for  his  wonderful 
providence,  by  which  alone  this  town  and  colony,  and  the 
grand  cause  of  truth  and  freedom  of  conscience,  haih  been 
upheld  to  this  day,  &c."'  The  great  principle  of  tolera- 
tion, however,  still  continued  to  prevail  in  the  government 
of  Rhode  Island;  for  upon  the  first  appearance  of  the 
Quakers  in  1656,  tlie  other  colonies  of  New  England  in- 
vited this  to  join  in  taking  measures  to  prevent  the  spread" 
of  their  doctrines.  The  assembly  replied,  '  we  shall 
strictly  adhere  to  the  foundation  principle  on  which  this 
colony  was  first  settled  :  to  wit,  that  every  man  who  sub- 
mits peaceably  to  the  civil  authority,  may  peaceably 
worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  own  con- 
science, without  molestation.'  And  again,  in  1659,  in  an 
address  to  Richard  Cromwell,  they  say, '  we  being  an  out- 
cast people,  formerly  from  our  mother  nation,  in  the  Bish- 
op's days,  and  since  from  the  rest  of  the  New  English  over 
zealous  colonies  ;  our  frame  being  much  like  the  present 
frame  and  constitution  of  our  dearest  mother  England  ; 
bearing  with  the  several  judgments  and  consciences,  each 
of  other  in  all  the  towns  of  our  colony,  to  which  our  neigh- 
bor colonies  do  not,  which  is  the  only  cause  of  their  great 
offence  against  us.' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  275 

The  life  of  this  venerable  divine,  lawgiver,  statesman, 
and  philosopher,  was  protracted  until  1682,  having  reach- 
ed an  age  exceeding  80.  He  passed  through  the  subse- 
quent Indian  war  without  injury.  The  Indians  reverenced 
and  loved  him.  Once  in  each  month  he  preached  to  the 
Narragansetts,  whose  language  he  had  acquired  ;  they 
listened  with  respect  out  of  regard  to  the  man.  His  doc- 
trines they  steadily  rejected. 

Edward  Winslow,  while  on  the  business  of  his  agency 
at  London,  invited  Mr  Glover  to  undertake  the  office  of 
teaching  elder  in  conjunction  with  Mr  Smith,  then  pastor, 
who  engaged  to  come,  but  died  at  London,  before  the 
ship  sailed  in  which  his  passage  had  been  engaged. 
Glover  was  a  man  of  great  eminence  among  the  puritans. 
\^'inslow  then  engaged  John  Norton,  afterwards  the  cele- 
brated minister  of  Boston,  who  arrived  in  1635,  and 
preached  one  season  so  much  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
people,  that  they  used  many  entreaties  to  induce  him  to 
remain  and  Mr  Smith  voluntarily  offered  to  relinquish 
his  office,  liut  Norton  persisted  in  his  refusal,  and  was  soon 
after  settled  at  Ipswich,  and  finally  at  Boston,  after  the 
death  of  Mr  Cotton. 

Shortly  after  the  dismission  of  Mr  Smith  in  1636,  the 
Rev.  John  Reyner  who  had  been  a  settled  clergyman  in 
England,  and  who  was  the  brother  of  Mrs  Southworth, 
the  second  wife  of  Governor  Bradford,  was  ordained  as  the 
successor  of  Mr  Smith.  He  was  a  person  of  great  humil- 
ity, worth,  and  piety,  and  withal  of  great  ability.  In 
1638,  the  celebrated  Charles  Chauncy,  afterwards  the 
minister  of  Scituate,  and  president  of  Harvard  College, 
was  strongly  urged  to  undertake  the  office  either  of  teach- 
er or  pastor  over  the  Plymouth  church,  in  conjunction 
with  Mr  Reyner.     Mr  Chauncy   preached   at  Plymouth 


276  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

three  years,  but  as  his  sentiments  touching  baptism  were 
not  in  conformity  to  those  of  the  people  generally,  (his 
tenets  in  that  particular  being  simil&r  to  those  of  the  Ana- 
baptists of  the  present  day,)  he  declined  a  settlement,  al- 
though the  people,  enamored  with  his  high  qualities  (even 
in  that  day  when  little  was  yielded  to  the  tenderness  of 
conscientious  scruples,)  were  sufficiently  liberal  and  en- 
lightened to  consent  that  he  might  practise  the  rite  of 
baptism  by  immersion  to  such  as  desired  to  be  admitted  to 
the  church  in  that  mode,  provided  Mr  Reyner  should  be 
permitted  to  baptize  in  the  usual  mode.  Mr  Chauncy 
succeeded  Mr  Lothrop  as  pastor  of  Scituate. 

The  further  account  both  of  Mr  Reyner  and  Mr  Chaun- 
cy,  belongs  to  a  subsequent  part  of  this  history. 

Governor  Carver,  and  the  surgeon,  Samuel  Fuller,  had 
been  chosen  the  deacons  of  this  church  in  Holland  ;  after 
their  deaths,  their  places  were  supplied  by  Richard  Mas- 
terson  and  Thomas  Blossom,  both  of  whom  died  about  the 
year  1630.  After  that  the  deacons  were  John  Doane, 
William  Paddy,  and  John  Cook.  Cook  was  excommuni- 
cated for  creating  dissensions  in  the  church,  and  became 
an  Anabaptist.     He  was  succeeded  by  John  Dunham. 

During  all  this  period,  Brewster  remained  in  his  office 
of  ruling  elder. 

DUXBURY, 

The  extensive  pine  forest,  the  certain  evidence  of  a 
sandy  and  barren  soil,  which  even  now  almost  skirts  the 
ancient  town  of  Plymouth  on  the  south  and  the  west  pre- 
vented any  extension  of  population  in  that  direction,  and 
on  the  east  the  ocean  was  its  boundary.  So  unconquera- 
ble is  the  barrenness  of  this  region,  that  even  now  the 
wild  deer  makes   his   lair  in  the   same  place   where  deer 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  277 

were  hunted  by  our  forefathers  two  centuries  ago,  and  a 
few  wretched  Indians  inhabit  the  primeval  woods  in  which 
their  ancestors  disdained  to  dwell. 

The  settlers  of  Plymouth,  apprehensive  of  the  natives, 
felt  but  little  inclination  to  extend  their  settlements  inland, 
but  they  found  themselves  as  their  numbers  increased,  with- 
in limits  too  narrow  for  comfort,  they  therefore  sought  to 
continue  the  settlements  along  the  ocean.  The  territory 
comprised  within  the  limitsof  Duxbury  was  contiguous,  now 
was  healthy,  and,  in  comparison  with  that  of  Plymouth, 
fertile,  and  probably  as  early  as  1627  or  1628,  settlers 
went  in,  amongst  whom  were  some  of  the  principal  men  of 
the  colony.  Captain  Standish,  William  Collier,  John  Aldeii, 
and  Jonathan  Brewster.  William  Bassett,  Love  Brewster, 
Francis  Eaton,  Experience  Mitchel,  Philip  De  La  Noye, 
Henry  Sampson,  Stephen  Tracy,  George  Soule,  Edmund 
Chandler,  Edward  Bompassee,  Henry  Howland,  Moses 
Simonson,  (Simmons,)  Francis  West,  Edmund  Freeman, 
Thomas  Bisbee,  Edmund  Hunt,  and  Edmund  Weston, 
were  early  settlers.* 

The  strong  settlements  which  were  formed  around  the 
bay  of  Massachusetts  and  on  its  rivers,  were  additional 
inducements  for  the  Plymouth  people  to  spread  themselves 
in  that  direction,  and  probably  in  consequence  of  the 
settlement  of  Massachusetts,  so  many  were  induced  to 
go  there,  that  they  soon  found  themselves  competent  in 
numbers  for  a  church.  The  inconvenience  of  attending 
public  worship  at  a  place  so  distant  as  Plymouth,  induced 
them  to  seek  a  dismission  from  that  church,  and  the  es- 

*  To  these  may  be  added  Richard  Church,  who  probably  came  from  Boston, 
as  his  name  appears  in  the  list  of  the  freemen  of  Massachusetts,  October  19, 
1630.     He  was  the  father  of  the  celebrated  Indian  warrior. 

Daniel  Pryor  another  early  settler,  probably  came  from  Plymouth,  although 
his  name  is  not  found  amongst  those  who  were  at  Plymouth,  May,  1627> 


27S  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

tablishment  of  another.     With  some  reluctance  their  re-^ 
quest  was  granted,   and  the   second    church   within   the 
colony  was  established  in  1632. 

As  a  pastor  was  not  ordained  over  this  church  until 
1637,  it  seems  not  improbable  that  elder  Brevt^ster  might 
have  administered  in  the  same  manner  as  he  did  over  that 
of  Plymouth  while  destitute  of  a  pastor,  and  this  suppo- 
sition is  corroborated  by  this  circumstance,  that  both  his 
sons  went  there,  and  when  he  died,  some  years  afterwards, 
his  residence  was  there. 

Ralph  Partridge,  a  clergyman  of  the  established  church 
in  England,  educated  at  the  University  of  Cambridge,  a 
distinguished  scholar  and  a  man  of  eminent  ability,  hav- 
ing been  persecuted  at  home^  and,  (to  use  his  own  words) 
'  being  hunted  like  a  partridge  on  the  mountains,'  fled  to 
New  England,  and  in  1637,  was  settled  over  the  cburch  at 
Duxbury  as  pastor. 

Although  the  second  church  in  the  colony  was  estab- 
lished at  Duxbury,  it  was  posterior  in  its  incorporation  as 
a  town  to  Scituate.  Duxbury  was  incorporated  in  1637, 
and  within  its  limits  were  included  the  present  towns  of 
Pembroke  and  Hanson,  the  greater  part  of  Marshfield, 
part  of  Kingston,  and  part  of  Bridgewater. 

Amongst  the  earlier  settlers  after  the  incorporation,  were 
Constant  Southworth,  Samuel  Nash,  Francis  Sprague, 
William  Paybody,  Christopher  Wadsworth  and  Joseph 
Rogers. 

In  1638,  an  annual  fair  was  allowed  in  this  town. 

The  third  church  was  also  gathered  here.  A  settlement 
nearly  contemporaneous  with  that  of  Duxbury,  was  com- 
menced at  a  place  called  Green  Harbor,  still  farther  north, 
on  the  sea.  Amongst  the  early  settlers  here,  was  the 
third  governor,  Edward  Winslow,  who  built  a  handsome 
seat,  and  acquired  an  extensive  tract  of  land.  His  place 
he  called  Careswell. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  279 


SCITUATE. 

Scituate,  a  corruption  from  the  Indian  word  Seteuat  or 
Satuit,  (in  English  Cold  Brook)  received  its  incorporation 
in  1636.  On  the  5th  of  October  in  that  year,  '  it  was 
allowed  to  be"  a  township  provided  they  have  in  case  of 
justice,  recourse  to  Plymouth  as  before.'  It  was  tiierefore 
the  second  town  in  the  old  colony  which  became  invested 
with  municipal  powers,  although  no  church  was  gath- 
ered here  previous  to  those  of  Duxbury  and  that  part  of 
Duxbury  afterwards  called  Rexham  and  now  Marshfield. 

This  town  included  the  territory  on  the  bay  north  of 
that  part  of  Duxbury  afterwards  called  Marshfield,  and  the 
line  of  Massachusetts.  Settlers  were  here  early.  Na- 
thaniel Tilden,*  and  his  sons,  Henry  Merritt,  and  Thomas 
Bird,  as  early  as  1628.      In  1633  it  was  a  constablerick. 

It  has  been  already  related  that  Mr  Hatherly  after  resi- 
ding in  Plymouth  for  a  time  had  returned  to  England.  In 
1632  he  returned  and  settled  at  Scituate,  of  which  town 
he  may  be  considered  the  father  and  founder. 

In  1633  the  court  ordered  that  '  the  whole  tract  of  land 
between  the  brook  at  Scituate  on  the  northwest  side,  and 
Conahasset  be  left  undisposed  of  till  we  know  the  resolu- 
tion of  Mr  James  Shirley,  Mr  John  Beauchamp,  Mr  Rich- 
ard Andrews, f  and  Mr  Timothy  Hatherly,  as  also  that 
portion  of  land  lately  made  choice  of  by  Mr  Hatherly. 
They  belonged  to  the  company  of  merchant  adventurers. 

In  1633  the  settlers  of  Scituate  who  were  freemen  of 
the  colony  were 

*  Mr  Tilden  died  in  1641,  and  left  a  numerous  posterity.  He  came  from 
Tenterden  in  Kent,  England.  He  was  the  son  of  Jo3eph  Tilden,  one  of  the 
merchant  adventurers. 

t  Afterwards  Lord  Mayor  of  London. 


280  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Anthony  Annable,  who  came  to  Plymouth  in  the  Fortune,  in  1621,  died  1673. 

Henry  Cobb.     Elder  Cobb  died  in  1679. 

Isaac  Robinson,  the  son  of  the  Leyden  pastor. 

William  Gilson,  an  assistant,  died  in  1639,  without  children. 

Humphrey  Turner,   a  deputy   to  the  court,  died  1673,  leaving   a  numerous 

p'oste  rity. 
William  Hatch,  an  elder,  died  in  1672. 
Samuel  House. 

Besides  these  there  were  many  who  took  the  oath  of 
fidelity  only. 

In  1634.  James  Cudworth,  afterwards  In  1636.  George  Lewis, 
commander  in  Philip's  war,  was  ad-  Benjamin  Lombard, 

mitted  a  freeman.  In  1637.  Rev.  John  Lothrop, 
Samuel  Fuller,  Henry  Bourne, 

John  Cooper,  Samuel  Hinckley, 

Henry  Rowley.  Mr  Thomas  Besbidge, 

In  1685.  Mr  Timothy  Hatherly,  John  Lewis. 

George  Kenrick,  In  1638.  Edward  Fitzrandle. 
Edward  Foster.  Richard  GiHis. 

Those  who  did  not  take  the  freemen's  oath  were 

Henry  Ewell,  George  Willard, 

William  Crocker,  Thomas  Hyland, 

Robert  Shelley,  Thomas  Pinchin, 

Isaac  Welles,  •    Thomas  Prior, 

Robert  Linnet,  William  Holmes,  sen. 

Edward  Casely,  Thomas  Chittenden, 

Mr  William  Vassall,  William  Perry, 

John  Crocker,  Joseph  Checkett, 

Joseph  Coleman,  John  Stockbridge. 

N  ichoas  Wade, 

Besides  Henry  Merritt,  already  mentioned  as  one  of  the  earliest  settlers. 

Others  who  were  admitted  to  take   this  oath,  but  the 
time  not  exactly  ascertained,  were 

Daniel  Standlake,  Hercules  Hills, 

Samuel  Jackson,  Lt  James  Torrey, 

William  Willis,  Thomas  Weyborne, 

George  Moore,  Joseph  Wermall, 

Robert  Studson,  (Stetson,)  Beamont, 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  281 

Mr  Thomas  King,  William  Barstow, 

John  Vassall,  John  HoUet, 

John  Turner,  sen.  and  sons,  William  Brooks, 

James  Cushman,  Gilbert  Brooks, 

Resolved  White,  Richard  Curtis, 

George  Russell,  William  Curtis, 

Stephen  Vinall,  Walter  Hatch, 

Abraham  Preble,  William  Peakes, 

Thomas  Lapham,  John  Sutton, 

Rhodolphiis  Elmes,  John  Hanmore, 

Jeremiah  Hatch,  Ephraim  Kempton^ 

Henry  Mason,  Matthew  Gannett, 

Isaac  Buck,  Peter  Colamore, 

Walter  Briggs,  MichasI  Peirce, 

Humphrey  Johnson,  William  Randall. 

In  October,  1637,  the  land  already  mentioned  as  having 
been  reserved  for  Messrs  Hatherly,  Andrews,  Shirley,  and 
Beauchamp,  was  granted  to  them  by  the  court  '  extending 
three  miles  up  into  the  woods  from  the  high  water  mark  in 
the  brook  provided  it  do  not  too  much  prejudice  the  town 
of  Scituate.' 

Three  fourths  of  this  tract  were  afterwards  sold,  Mr 
Hatherly  reserving  his  fourth. 

'  This  tract  was  bounded  by  Conahasset  neck  north,  the 
sea  east,  the  brook  south,  and  the  commons  west. 

In  January,  1637,  a  committee  of  fifteen  planters, 
amongst  whom  were  Mr  Hatherly  and  Mr  Lothrop,  '  com- 
plained to  the  colony  court  that  they  had  such  a  small 
proportion  of  lands  allotted  them  that  they  cannot  subsist 
upon  them.'  The  court  granted  them  '  all  the  lands  be- 
tween the  north  and  south  rivers,  provided  they  make  a 
township  there,  inhabit  upon  them,  compose  their  differ- 
ences with  Mr  William  Vassal,  and  others,  before  the  ne.Kt 
court,  and  establish  and  support  a  ferry  at  North  river, 
which  Mr  Vassal  was  willing  to  do,  that  so  the  removal 
from  Scituate  may  be  without  offence.' 
36 


282  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

This  tract  as  late  as  1773,  was  ceded  to  Marshfield. 
In  December,  1638,  the  lands  at  Seipican  (now  Roch- 
ester) were  granted  to  Mr  Thomas  Besbeech  (Bisbee) 
James  Cudworth,  William  Gilson,  Anthony  Annable,  Henry 
Cobb,  Henry  Rowley,  Edward  Foster,  and  Robert  Linnett, 
as  a  committee  of  Scituate.  This  grant  was  not  accepted, 
as  the  Scituate  people  had  determined  to  remove  to 
Barnstable. 

'  A  further  grant  two  miles  by  one,  up  the  north  river, 
was  made  in  1640.  To  this  the  Indian  title  was  extin- 
guished in  1652  by  the  payment  of  £14  to  Josiah  Wampa- 
tuck,  the  sachem  of  Mattakeeset ;  but  the  court  who  had 
then  forbidden  the  purchase  of  lands  by  individuals  from 
the  Indians,  say  '  Forasmuch  as  they  have  bought  nothing 
but  what  was  formerly  granted,  the  court  have  remitted 
what  might  be  a  breach  of  order  therein.' 

In  1638,  the  population  was  freemen  22,  townsmen 
19  —  41. 

Many  of  the  early  settlers  came  from  the  county  of 
Kent,  in  England. 

Anthony  Annable,  Henry  Cobb,  George  Kenrick,  George 
Lewis  and  others,  were  dismissed  November  23d,  1634, 
from  the  church  at  Plymouth,  and  on  the  18th  of  January, 
1635,  a  church  was  established  at  Scituate  which  was  the 
fourth  in  the  colony,  and  on  that  day  the  Rev.  John  Lo- 
throp  was  installed  as  pastor,  and  remained  until  1639^ 
when  he  and  most  of  the  church  removed  to  Barn- 
stable. 

A  Mr  Saxton,  and  Adam  Blackman,  (afterwards  settled 

at  Guilford,   Connecticut,)  occasionally   preached    to   the 

people  who  remained,  until  tfie  settlement  of  Dr  Chauncy. 

In  1639  and  1640,   the  great  emigration  from  Scituate 

to  Barnstable  took  place. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  283 

TAUNTON. 

Edward  Winslow,  and  Stephen  Hopkins,  were  the  first 
Englishmen  who  in  journeying  to  visit  Massasoiet,  (July, 
1621)  traversed  the  soil  of  this  ancient  town  : — they  found 
it  depopulated  and  desolate ;  the  ravages  of  the  great 
plague  in  1612  were  everywhere  discernible  :  —  two  In- 
dians disputed  their  passage  over  the  river,  but  it  docs  not 
appear  that  they  were  inhabitants.  At  Tetiquet  and  Na- 
masket  there  were  Indian  villages  ;  the  territory  of  Taun- 
ton proper,  (namely,  what  is  now  included  within  the 
present  town  of  Taunton,  and  the  towns  of  Berkley,  and 
Raynham.)  was  claimed  by  the  sachem  of  Tetiquet. 
Within  this  territory  there  were  no  Indian  settlements 
except  in  a  small  part  of  Raynham,  but  the  whole  country 
which  was  traversed  by  the  river  had  been  thickly  popu- 
lated, for  Winslow  and  Hopkins  found  that  the  land  had 
been  cleared  on  both  sides  of  the  river  for  some  distance, 
and  they  discovered  many  unburied  remains  of  those  who 
had  died  (pi-obably  in  the  great  sickness,)  and  some  ruined 
wigwams,  and  they  •vvere  informed  by  the  Namaskets,  that 
upon  the  river,  '  were  and  had  been  many  towns.' 

There  is  a  traditional  account  that  settlers  were  here  as 
«arly  as  1626,  but  they  must  have  been  like  Blackstonc 
at  Boston,  Walford  at  Mishawum  (Charlestown)  and  Ma- 
verick at  Noddle's  Island,  insulated  and  solitary  men  who 
sought  the  wild  Independence  of  the  forest,  held  by  occu- 
pancy, and  suffered  not  their  native  independence  to  be 
*  curtailed  of  its  fair  proportions,'  by  the  usages  and  re- 
straints of  society.  At  the  head  of  the  list  of  purchasers 
stands  the  name  of  Henry  Uxley,  without  the  respectable 
prefix  of  Mr  ;  none  now  can  tell  who  he  was,  whence  he 
came,  or  whither  he  went.  His  name  is  extinct,  not  a 
vestige  remains,  not  a  memorial  exists  to  tell  us  what  kind 


284  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

of  a  man  he  was,  or  at  what  period  he  sought  the  Indian 
Cohannet.  His  house  and  lot  were  sold  to  Richard 
Williams,  and  about  him  much  is  known,  for  he  may  in 
some  measure  be  considered  as  the  father,  although  not 
the  founder  of  Taunton.  He  certainly  was  in  Taunton 
before  the  purchase  by  Miss  Pool.  Tradition  says  he  was 
accompanied  by  a  brother,  and  it  also  says  that  he  came 
from  Scituate.  None  of  the  name  appear  on  the  cata- 
logue of  the  first  purchasers. 

He  might  have  come  immediately  from  Scituate,  but  there 
is  a  strong  probability  that  he  was  one  of  those  who  ac- 
companied Endicot  to  Salem,  for  his  wife  Frances  Digh- 
lon  was  the  sister  of  Endicot's  first  wife.  He  might  have 
gone  from  Salem  to  Scituate,  and  from  there  to  Taunton. 
Williams  was  a  Welshman,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that 
he  was  a  relation  of  Roger  Williams.  A  tradition  has 
always  existed  amongst  his  descendants,  that  he  was  rela- 
ted by  blood  to  Oliver  Cromwell,  the  original  name  of 
whose  family  it  is  well  known  was  Williams,  (which  name 
was  changed  for  an  estate)  and  one  of  Cromwell's  ances- 
tors bore  the  name  of  Richard  Williams.* 

The  local  situation  of  Taunton  being  so  far  inland, 
prevented  for  some  time  any  great  accession  of  numbers  ; 
none  but  men  fearless  of  danger  had  as  yet  sought  this 
wilderness.      All  the  settlements  in  the  colony  were  con- 

*  This  venerable  man  was  born  as  early  as  1599.  He  was  a  deputy  from 
Taunton  to  the  General  Court  at  Plymouth  in  1646,  1648,  1650,  1651,  and  sev- 
eral subsequent  years. 

His  name  appears  at  the  head  of  the  list  both  of  those  who  made  the  South 
purchase,  (Dighton,)  and  of  those  who  made  the  north  purchase,  viz.  Norton, 
Easton,  Manslield,  and  a  part  of  Attleborough.  He  outlived  the  Plymouth 
government,  having  died  in  1692.  He  was  a  rigid  puritan.  W' hen  blind  and 
deaf,  from  age,  he  was  accustomed  to  attend  public  worship,  saying,  '  that  al- 
though he  could  neither  see  nor  hear,  yet  it  was  consoling  to  his  feelings  to 
know  that  he  was  present  while  the  people  of  God  were  at  their  worship.' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  285 

^ned  to  the  sea-side,  and  in  Massachusetts,  no  settlement 
had  been  made  excepting  round  the  bay,  and  on  Cha  es 
river  ;  the  fear  of  the  natives  who  inhabited  the  whole  of 
the  interior,  confined  the  English  to  the  sea-shore.  At 
this  time,  Elizabeth  Pool,  a  lady  of  family  and  fortune, 
from  Taunton  in  Somersetshire,  Eng'and,  who  had  at  first 
settled  at  Dorchester,  conceived  the  bold  design  of  occu- 
pying the  territory  of  Cohannet.  This  spot  was  at  the 
distance  of  twentysix  miles  from  Plymouth,  the  nearest 
settlement.  The  lands  now  embraced  in  the  extensive 
towns  of  Middleborough  and  the  ancient  town  of  Bridge- 
water,  were  unoccupied  by  any  excepting  natives,  and 
between  Cohannet  and  Plymouth,  were  the  Namaskets 
and  Tetiquets  governed  by  their  own  sachems.  On  the 
south  no  English  settlement  intervened,  and  the  great 
sachem  Massasoiet  had  his  residence  at  the  distance  of 
little  more  than  twenty  miles.  On  the  west  the  infant 
settlement  of  Roger  Williams  could  offer  no  protection 
against  the  encroachments  of  the  powerful  Narragansetts, 
and  on  the  north  between  Cohannet  and  Dorchester,  v/ere 
the  Punkapogues  and  Neponsits  :  —  yet,  of  what  is  not 
the  female  mind  capable  when  stimulated  by  religion, 
love,  or  revenge  !  It  was  the  ardent  love  of  religion,  an 
enthusiastic  desire  of  planting  another  church  in  the 
American  wilderness  which  impelled  this  pious  puritan 
lady  to  encounter  all  the  dangers,  and  all  the  hardships  of 
forming  a  settlement  in  the  midst  of  the  Indians. 

Under  such  appalling  circumstances,  surrounded  on  all 

sides  by  savages,  and  liable  to  be  cut  off  by  their  hostility 

from  all  connexion  with  the  stronger   English  settlements 

was  this  insulated  settlement  commenced,   '  dux  fcemina 

JacU: 

Elizabeth  Pool  died  in  1654,  and  the  veneration  of  a 


286 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 


kinsman  placed   over  her  grave  a  stone  with  an  inscrip- 
tion* which  happily  commemorates  her  virtues. 

The  first  and  ancient  purchasers  stand  in  the  following 
order. 


Henry  Uxley, 

8 

William  Phillips, 

8 

Richard  Williams, 

12 

William  Hailstone, 

8 

Joseph  Wilson, 

8 

William  Parker,           ,< 

12 

Benjamin  Wilson, 

8 

John  Parker, 

8 

William  Coy, 

8 

John  Richmond, 

6 

George  Hall, 

12 

William  Holloway, 

12 

David  Corwithy, 

12 

T.:e  widow   Randall, 

6 

Mr  William  Pool, 

12 

Francis  Doty, 

12 

George  Macy, 

8 

William  Dunn, 

8 

William  Harvey, 

8 

William  Scadding, 

12 

Hezekiah  Hoar, 

8 

Jolm  Bryant, 

6 

Walter  Dean, 

.      12 

Anthony  Slocum, 

8 

John  Dean, 

12 

John  Gengille, 

8 

John  Stronor, 

12 

Francis  Street, 

8 

Henry  Andrews, 

12 

Hugh  Rossiter, 

8 

Thomas  Cooke, 

6 

John  Gilbert, 

12 

John  Smith, 

12 

Thomas  Gilbert,. 

12 

Mr  Thomas  Farwell, 

12 

Robert  Hobell, 

6 

Edward  Case, 

8 

Richard  Burt, 

8 

John  Kingsley, 

n 

John  Grossman,. 

6 

Richard  Paull, 

6 

John  Luther, 

6 

Richard  Smith, 

12 

John  Drake, 

12 

Mr  John  Gilbert, 

12 

Mr  John  Brown, 

*  "  Here  rest  the  remains 

of  Miss    Elizabeth  Pool, 

a  native  of  Old  England, 

of  good  Family,  Friends,  and  Prospects, 

All  which  she  left,  in  the  Prime  of  her  Life, 

to  enjoy  the  Religion  of  her  Conscience 

in  this  distant  Wilderness;  ,     . 

A  great  Proprietor  in  the  Townsjiip 

of  Taunton  ; 

A  chief  promoter  of  its  Settlement, 

and  its  Incorporation,  1639-40, 

about  which  time  she  Settled  near  this  spot; 

And,  having  employed  the  opportunity 

of  her  Virgin  state. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  287 

Notwithstanding  the  deep  enthusiasm  which  was  cher- 
ished by  Elizabeth  Poal,  religion  and  justice  were  in  her 
code  of  ethics  inseparable,  and  she  had  not  yet  admitted  the 
positive  lawfulness  of  '  despoiling  the  heathen.'  She  was 
the -first  of  the  English  who  practically  admitted  the  force 
of  that^moral  obligation  which  requires  the  consent  of  the 
owner  before  property  can  be  taken  from  his  possession, 
and  appropriated  to  the  use  of  another,  and  she  purchased 
her  lands  by  giving  a  fair  equivalent  before  occupation. 
The  settlers  of  Plymouth  did  indeed  eventually  extin- 
guish the  Indian  title  by  purchase  from  the  owner  and  by 
taking  his  grant,  but  this  was  long  after  the  actual  oc- 
cupation, and  they  could  have  found  no  justification 
for  their  original  occupation  except  on  the  ground  that 
they  held  by  the  permission  and  by  the  gift  of  Massasoiet, 

in  Piety,  Liberality, 

and  Sanctity  of  Manners, 

Died,  May  21,  A.  D   1654,  aged  lxv. 

To  whose  Memory 

this  Monument  is  gratefully  erected 

by  her  next  of  kin, 

John  Borland,  Esquire, 

A.  D.  1771 

This  Inscription  was  written  by  the  Hon.  Robert  Treat  Paine,  one  of  the 

signers  of  the  declaration  of  independence. 

Her  brother  Captain  William  Pool  was  her  principal  devisee.  His  son  Colo- 
nel John  Pool  removed  to  Boston,  and  was  subsequently  distinguished  as  a 
partisan  officer  in  the  great  Indian  war.  He  succeeded  to  the  possessions  of 
his  aunt,  and  from  him  they  descended  eventually  to  the  family  of  Borland. 
The  wife  of  Colonel  Pool  was  the  daughter  of  William  Brenton,  Esq.  who  resi- 
ded in  Taunton  for  many  years;  from  him  is  descended  the  gallant  Sir  Jahleel 
Brenton,  now  an  admiral  in  the  British  navy,  and  the  Hon.  Brenton  Halliburton, 
now  a  judge  of  the  supreme  court  of  Nova  Scotia. 

George  Macy  Esq.  died  August  17, 1693,  leaving  no  sons  but  several  daughters. 
John  Strong  removed  to  Northampton  shortly  after  the  Indian  war. 
Edward  Case  removed  and  sold  his  lands  to  Samuel  Wilbore,  one  of  the  fol- 
lowers of  Mrs   Hut?hinson,  from  whom  are   descended  all  of  that  name  in 
Taunton,  Raynhaoj,  Rhode  Island,  and  Somersat. 


288  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

or  that  the  lands  were  vacant ;  unless  they  had  resorted 
to  that  refinement  in  the  law  which  does  not  admit  any 
title  in  the  aboriginals. 

The  first  purchase  was  made  in  1637,  and  confirmed 
afterwards,  this  was  called  the  Tetiquet  purchase.  Teti- 
quet  was  the  Indian  name  of  the  great  river  of  Taunton. 
When  Philip  confirmed  the  lands  which  had  been 
granted  by  his  father  Ossamequin  in  1663,  he  refers  to 
Capt.  William  Pool,  and  Mr  John  Gilbert,  and  their  asso- 
ciates in  1638;  on  which  occasion  '  the  meadows  upon 
the  great  river  downwards  so  far  as  Storehouse  point,  so 
called  with  all  the  meadows  of  Assonet  and  Broad  cove, 
with  a  small  tract  of  land  bought  of  Ishben,  lying  betwixt 
the  marked  tree  at  the  pond,  and  the  mouth  of  Nistoqua- 
hanock,  or  Three  Mile  river  are  enumerated  and  in- 
cluded.'* 

Although  the  first  purchase  of  Taunton  was  made  of 
the  Tetiquet  Indians,  and  confirmed  by  another  deed  from 
the  descendants  of  the  Tetiquet  sachems, f  yet  it  would 
seem  that  Ossamequin  and  Philip  both  claimed  the  right 
of  soil  in  some  of  the  subsequent  purchases  either  as  actual 
owners  or  as  paramount  lords. 

According  to  Indian  usage,  the  general  title  to  lands 
was  in  the  sachems,  yet  on  some  occasions  they  recognised 
a  right  in  individuals.       Ishben   probably  had   placed  his 

*  This  is  supposed  by  Mr  Samuel  Davis,  the  indefatigable  antiquarian  of  Ply- 
mouth, to  hiive  been  only  a  grant  of  the  temporary  privileges  of  meadows. 
Storehouse  Point,  where  a  tiading  house  had  been  early  erected  by  the  people 
of  Plymouth,  is  in  Somerset,  part  of  ancient  Swansey,  and  Broad  Cove  was 
afterwards  included  in  the  south  purchase,  afterwards  part  of  ancient  Dighton. 
The  river  called  Nistequahanock,  he  says,  was  also  called  Nenestecouieck, 
and  suggests  whether  Cohannet  might  not  have  been  an  abbreviation  of  the 
first  word. 

t  This  word  is  spelled  Titticut,  Tetiquet,  Tittiquht,  and  there  are  some  other 
variations. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  289 

solitary  wigwam  on  the  domain  of  the  ancient  Taunton. 
In  a  subsequent  grant  of  the  ancient  Freetown  in  1659,  a 
reservation  was  made  to  a  solitary  Indian  resident,  Taba- 
catason,  of  the  lands  which  he  then  had  in  '  present  use.' 

On  the  4th  of  December,  1638,  Mr  William  Pool, 
Mr  John  Gilbert,  sen.,  Mr  Henry  Andrews,  John  Strong, 
John  Dean,  Walter  Dean,  and  Edward  Case,  were  made 
freemen  of  the  Plymouth  colony.  On  the  3d,  Mr  Richard 
Smith  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  and  fidelity.  He  was 
made  a  freeman  in  1640,  and  previous  to  1640,  W^illiam 
Parker,  John  Smith,  Mr  Thomas  Farwell,  Mr  David  Cor- 
withy,  Mr  Holloway,  Mr  Nicholas  Street,  Thomas  Gilbert, 
Thomas  Cooke,  John  Richmond,  Hezekiah  Hoar,  Richard 
Paull,  Hugh  Rossiter,  Francis  Street,  John  Gingell,  and 
William  Scadding  were  freemen. 

On  the  3d  of  March,  1639,  the  plantation  of  Cohannet 
was  incorporated  by  the  name  of  Taunton. 

In  the  catalogue  of  the  '  ancient  purchasers'  of  Taun- 
ton, appears  the  name  of  Francis  Doaty  (Doty  and 
Doughty.)  Whether  he  was  there  previous  to  the  arrival 
of  Elizabeth  Pool  is  not  absolutely  certain,  although  it  is 
highly  probable.  He  was  a  minister.  It  is  also  probable 
that  Henry  Uxley,  Richard  Williams,  Joseph  Wilson, 
Benjamin  Wilson,  William  Coy,  George  Hall,  George 
Macy,  and  some  others  were  in  Taunton  previous  to  that 
period.  Elizabeth  Pool,  and  her  brother  William  Pool, 
and  most  of  the  other  ancient  purchasers,  came  imme- 
diately from  Dorchester ;  Mr  John  Brown  came  from  Ply- 
mouth. 

In  a  pamphlet  entitled  '  Plain  Dealing  or  Newes  from 

New  England,'  written  by  Thomas  Lechford,  of  Clements 

Inn,  Jan.  17,  1641,  and   published  in  London,   1642,  the 

writer,  speaking  of  Taunton,  says,  '  Cohannet,  alias  Taun- 

37 


290  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLON5f. 

ton,  is  in  Plymouth  patent.  There  is  a  church  gathered 
of  late,  and  some  ten  or  twenty  of  the  church,  the  fest 
excluded,  master  Hooke,  pastor,  master  Street,  teacher. 
Master  Hooke  received  ordination  from  the  hands  of  one 
master  Bishop,  a  school-master,  and  one  Parker  a  hus- 
bandman, and  then  master  Hooke  joyned  in  ordaining 
master  Street.  One  master  Doughty,  a  minister,  opposed 
the  gathering  of  the  church  there,  alleging  that  accord- 
ing to  the  covenant  of  Abraham,  all  men's  children  that 
were  of  baptised  parents,  and  so  Abraham's  children, 
ought  to  be  baptised  -,  and  spoke  so  in  publique,  or  to 
that  effect,  which  was  held  a  disturbance,  and  the  minis- 
ters spake  to  the  magistrate  to  order  him  ;  the  magistrate 
commanded  the  constable,  who  dragged  master  Doughty 
out  of  the  assembly.  He  was  forced  to  go  away  from 
thence  with  his  wife  and  children.'* 

Letchford  resided  in  America  four  years,  from  July, 
1637,  to  July,  1641,  and  in  that  time  he  personally  visited 
'  New  Taunton'  as  he  styles  it,  and  his  information  as  to 
facts,  (although  he  Was  of  the  English  church,  and  there- 
fore somewhat  prejudiced  against  the  Puritans,)  may  be 
relied  on. 

From  his  account,  it  is  made  certain  that  Mr  Hooke  and 
Mr  Street  were  both  resident  at  Taunton  at  the  same 
time, —  one  as  pastor,  the  other  as  teacher,  the  ministerial 
office  being  divided.  It  is  also  probable  that  both  Hooke 
and  Street,  and  William  Pool,  came  with  Elizabeth  Pool 
from  England.  William  Pool  was  her  brother,  and  Mr 
Street  had  married  her  sister. 

The  ordination  took  place  either  during  Letchford's 
residence  in  the  country  or  shortly  before,  as  he  speaks  of 

*  Doughty  is  supposed  to  have  heen  at  Long  Island  about  1653. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  291 

the  transactions  which  happened  there,  as  of  recent  oc- 
currence. In  1641,  Hooke  had  left  Taunton,  and  was 
settled  at  New  Haven,  and  Street  was  probably  the  sole 
teacher  in  1641,  for  Cohannet,  alias  Taunton,  was  then 
granted  to  Elizabeth  Pool,  Nicholas  Street,  and  their  as- 
sociates, (Hooke  not  being  named.)  This  ordination  pro- 
bably took  place  in  1637,  or  early  in  1638. 

It  is  not  unlikely  that  Doty  might  have  assisted  in  re- 
ligious exercises  amongst  the  few  original  settlers  of  Taun- 
ton. But  William  Hooke  must  be  considered  the  first 
pastor  of  this  ancient  church.  Of  the  regularity  of  his 
ordination  therie  can  be  no  doubt,  as  Wilson  of  Boston, 
and  Richard  Mather  of  Dorchester,  both  illustrious  men 
and  lights  of  the  church,  assisted.  Hooke  was  born  about 
the  year  1600. —  He  married  the  sister  of  Edward  Whalley, 
one  of  the  Parliamentary  major-generals,  and  who,  by 
sitting  as  one  of  the  judges  of  King  Charles  I,  obtained 
the  unhappy  distinction  of  a  regicide. 

Mr  Hooke  left  Taunton  (probably  in  1640,)  and  removed 
to  New  Haven;  in  1641,  (according  to  Cotton  Mather,) 
he  was  ordained  to  the  same  office  which  Street  had  held 
at  Taunton,  the  famous  John  Davenport  being  the  pastor. 
He  succeeded  Samuel  Eaton,  (the  brother  of  Theophilus 
Eaton,  the  founder  and  first  governor  of  New  Haven,)  who 
had  differed  with  Davenport  touching  some  points  of 
church  discipline  ;  the  governor  advised  this  removal 
of  his  brother,  and  he  returned  to  England.* 

In  1656,  Hooke  left  New  Haven  and  returned  to  Eng- 
land. He  was  for  a  time  minister  at  Exmouth,  Devon- 
shire, and  then  master  of  the  Savoy.    He  then  wa,s  received 

*  Trumbull  in  his  History  of  Connecticut,  says  that  Hooke  was  ordained  at 
New  Haven  in  1644,  which,  if  true,  would  give  him  a  longer  residence  at 
Taunton. 


292  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

into  the  family  of  the  lord-protector,  Oliver  Cromwell,  as 
domestic  chaplain.  He  was  highly  esteemed  by  the  pro- 
tector, who  provided  for  him  liberally,  and  designed  to 
have  gathered  a  separate  church  from  his  family  and 
household,  of  which  Hooke  was  to  have  been  the  pastor.* 

•  In  one  of  the  recent  volumes  of  the  collections  of  the  Historical  Society 
of  Massachusetts,  there  is  a  letter  from  Mr  Hooke  to  John  Winthrop,  afterwards 
governor  of  Connecticut,  written  after  his  arrival  in  England.  It  is  inserted 
entire. 

'  Honored  Sir, — I  humbly  salute  you,  together  with  Mrs  Winthrop,  and  your 
son  and  daughters,  with  the  remembrance  of  my  entire  respects  to  you  and 
yours.  I  received  the  letter  which  you  sent  aboard  to  me  newly  after  my 
departure  from  Boston,  it  being  no  less  a  trouble  to  me  than  to  yourself,  that  I 
was  so  hurried  away  that  I  could  not  see  you  once  again,  and  solemnly  take  my 
leave  of  you,  to  whom  I  reckon  myself  very  much  engaged  for  your  love  and 
care  of  me  and  mine.  The  Lord  was  pleased  to  afford  us  a  very  comfortable 
and  speedy  passage  from  land  to  land  in  the  space  of  five  weeks,  our  sea  exer- 
cises being  no  more  than  ordinary.  After  our  landing  we  were  all  held  with 
colds  and  coughs,  and  I  am  scarce  free  to  this  day. — We  found  the  Parliament 
sitting  when  we  came,  whose  greatest  work  hath  been,  to  raise  the  present 
government  to  that  which  is  kingly,  this  of  kingly  being  now  voted  by  the  far 
major  part,  though  not  the  melior,  as  I  understand,  yet  some  godly  persons 
joining  therein.  It  is  apprehended  that  settlement  is  not  obtainable  in  the 
present  way.  The  churches  throughout  the  land  that  are  congregational,  and 
likewise  particular  godly  persons,  are  mostly  averse  to  this  change,  and  sundry 
churches,  from  several  counties,  have  petitioned  to  the  protector  against  it.  In 
his  first  meeting  with  the  parliament,  he  desired  time  of  consideration ;  in  his 
second  he  expressed  himself  negatively ;  in  his  third  he  did  not  speak,  as  it  is 
said,  so  perspicuously  and  expressly ;  in  his  fourth  the  parliament  delivered 
their  reasons  for  this  change ;  and  now  the  fifth  hasting,  it  is  expected  that  he 
should  deliver  his  reasons  for  refusal,  or  accept  what  is  tendered.  I  suppose 
his  spirit  inclineth  to  refusal,  as  the  case  is  circumstanced  ;  but  he  is  put  upon 
straights  through  the  importunities  of  such  as  urge  the  necessity  of  this  change, 
knowing  also  that  the  parliament  may,  and  perhaps  will,  disown  him  in  the 
Spanish  wars,  and  withdraw  their  help,  and  also  in  many  other  things  relin- 
quish or  oppose  him,  and  render  the  present  arbitrary  sword  power  odious  and 
tyrannical,  and  when  he  shall  die,  choose  a  king,  whose  little  finger  may  be 
very  heavy  upon  the  people  of  God;  whereas  now  (if  he  accept  of  the  present 
ofTer)  he  shall  have  the  power  of  nominating  his  successor,  &c.  But  on  the 
other  side  a  design  is  feared,  the  promoters  being  not  men  (for  the  most  part) 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  093 

After  the  restoration  of  Charles  II  he  was  silenced,  (May 
24,  1662,)  for  non-conformity,  and  died  in  London,  March 

of  a  desirable  gang,  many  of  them  not  very  good  well  willers,  perhaps,  to  the 
better  party  ;  and  the  hand  of  the  lawyers  is  chief  in  these  things,  to  settle 
their  forms  (it  is  thought)  no  less  than  the  state  of  the  land.  Likewise,  former 
professions  and  protestations  against  kingly  power  are  alleged  and  much  insisted 
upon,  as  made  sometimes  by  the  army,  godly  men,  and  not  of  mean  rank,  ut- 
terly denying  any  such  engagements  or  protestations.  Some  fear  also  lest 
things  should  revert  to  their  first  principles,  in  the  issue,  and  our  gains  by  all 
those  bloody  wars,  lie  at  last  in  a  narrow  compass,  etc. 

'The  protector  is  urged  utrinque  and  (I  am  ready  to  think)willing  enough  to 
betake  himself  to  a  private  hfe,  if  it  might  be.  He  is  a  goodly  man,  much  in 
prayer  and  good  discourses,  delighting  in  good  men,  and  good  ministers,  self- 
denying,  and  ready  to  promote  any  good  work  for  Christ. 

'  As  touching  myself,  I  am  not  as  yet  settled,  the  protector  having  engaged  me 
to  him  not  long  after  my  landing,  who  hitherto  hath  well  provided  for  me.  His 
desire  is,  that  a  church  may  be  gathered  in  his  family,  to  which  purpose  I  have 
had  speech  with  him  several  times ;  but  though  the  thing  be  most  desirable, 
yet  I  foresee  great  difficulties  in  sundry  respects.  I  think  to  proceed  as  far  as 
I  may,  by  any  rule  of  God,  and  am  altogether  unwilling  that  this  motion  should 
fall  in  his  heart.  But  my  own  weakness  is  discouragement  enough,  were  there 
nothing  else. 

'  Your  letters  were  delivered,  Mr  Peter  [Hugh  Peters]  undertaking  for  two 
of  them.  For  Sir  Kenelme  Digby  is  in  France,  and  when  he  will  return  I  hear 
not.  Mr  Peter  is  not  yet  thoroughly  recovered  out  of  his  late  eclipse  ;  but  I 
hear  better  of  his  preaching  than  was  formerly  spoken  of  it.  He  hath  been 
loving  to  me,  and  hath  (I  hope)  received  benefit  by  the  things  which  have 
lately  befallen  him.  The  steward  of  the  house  and  I  speak  often  of  you.  His 
name  is  Mr  Maydestone,  who  (as  he  saith)  sucked  the  same  milk  with  you.  He 
is  a  godly  wise  man,  and  one  to  whom  I  am  much  bound  for  his  love.  The  land 
is  as  full  of  wickedness  as  ever  it  was,  excepting  that  there  is  a  remnant  pro- 
fessing the  pure  ways  of  God  with  more  clearness,  liberty,  and  boldness,  than 
heretofore ;  and  here  are  many  good  churches  in  city  and  country,  far  and  near, 
and  many  able  ministeis. 

'  There  have  been  two  conspiracies  discovered  since  my  arrival — one  of  the 
levellers,  many  of  whom  were  engaged  by  some  great  enemy  to  take  away  the 
life  of  the  protector,  and  scarce  three  or  four  of  them  known  one  to  another, 
that  if  any  of  them  should  be  discovered,  they  might  not  discover  very  many 
others,  but  the  plot  still  go  on  in  the  hands  of  other  men.  One  Sundercombe 
was  a  chief  man  in  this  design,  a  very  stout  man,  who,  with  one  Cecill,  was 
apprehended,  and  he  condemned  to  die,  who,  the  night  before  the  time  appointed 
for  his  execution,  poisoned  himself      He  was  a  very  atheist,  not  holding  the 


294  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

21,  1677,  and  was  buried  on  the  north  side  of  the  new 
artillery  garden. 

immortality  of  the  soul.  One  of  the  life-guards  had  his  hand  also  in  the  con- 
spiracy, and  had  received  a  reward  to  act  in  it,  who,  fearing  a  discovery,  to  save 
his  life  detected  Sundercombe,  made  known  the  business,  and  prevented  the 
burning  of  Whitehall,  when  the  match  in  the  basket  full  of  the  most  combusti- 
ble and  furious  materials  was  lighted  and  placed  in  the  midst  of  the  chapel  in  a 
seat,  etc. — The  other  conspiracy  was  discovered  the  last  week.  It  was  carried 
on  by  tumultuous,  outrageous,  discontented  men,  pretending  to  fifth  monarchy, 
but  discovering  in  their  declaration  (which  is  in  print)  a  bloody  spirit,  though 
under  a  specious  shew.  Some  of  them  were  lately  apprehended  as  they  were 
praying,  ready  to  set  forward  in  a  hostile  manner,  together  in  a  body,  having 
accordingly  furnished  themselves.  In  this  design  one  Vernour,  not  long  since 
dwelling  in  your  Boston,  a  wine  cooper,  is  a  principal  actor,  who  being  brought 
before  the  Protector,  spoke  and  behaved  himself  with  as  great  impudence,  in- 
solence, pride,  and  railing,  as  (I  think)  you  ever  heard  of.  It  is  thought  also 
that  Major  General  Harrison,  Colonel  Rich,  Carey,  Danvers,  Colonel  Okey,  Sir 
Henry  Vane,  are  engaged  in  this  plot.  I  suppose  some  of  them  are  secured, 
or  sent  for  so  to  be.  VVe  hang  here  upon  ticklish  points,  and  scarce  know  what 
to  think,  only  the  people  of  God  are  still  looking  up  to  him.  Mr  Hopkins  and 
Mr  Tenwick  have  gone  to  God,  within  two  or  three  days  one  of  the  other,  in  a 
time  wherein  we  have  very  great  need  of  the  presence  and  prayers  of  such 
men. 

'  Sir,  I  would  not  tire  you  -.  I  have  very  great  need  of  the  help  of  your  pray- 
ers ;  I  am  still  also  valetudinarious,  and  should  rejoice  to  do  God  any  acceptable 
service  before  my  great  change  cometh.  I  have  spoken  again  and  again  to 
Mr  Peter  to  remember  your  sister  Lake  ;  what  he  will  do  I  know  not ;  I  pray 
remember  my  respects  to  her  also,  and  to  Mr  Blinman.  The  father  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  you  and  all  yours,  prospering  your  endeavors  to  his 
glory  and  the  good  of  many.     To  his  grace  I  heartily  commend  you,  and  rest. 

'  Yours  very  much  bound  to  you, 

'April  13,  1657.  '  William  Hookk. 

For  the  much  honored  Mr  John  Winthrop 
at  his  house  in  Pequot,  in  New  England.' 

An  adept  in  art  so  consummate  as  Cromwell,  might  have  easily  deceived  the 
simplicity  of  the  Taunton  minister.  Mr  Hooke  might  in  sincerity  have  be- 
lieved that  this  '  godly  man'  was  anxious  for  private  life  !  Although  he  could 
not  fathom  the  depths  of  Oliver's  policy,  yet  he  gives  the  true  reasons,  (and 
they  are  by  no  means  without  force)  why  he  should  have  assumed  the  crown. 
— Never  did  the  fires  of  ambition  burn  with  more  fury  in  any  breast  than  in 
that  of  the  Lord  Protector.  That  he  had  contemplated  the  possibility  of  rearing 
the  throne  which  he  had  prostrated,  and  of  filling  that  lofty  seat  which  had 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  295 

Trumbull  speaking  both  of  him  and  Eaton,  says  '  they 
were  men  of  great  learning  and  piety,  and  possessed  of 
excellent  pulpit  talents.' 

Cotton  Mather  says  he  was  '  a  learned,  holy,  and  hum- 
ble man.' 

He  was  the  author  of  a  treatise  entitled  '  The  Privileges 
of  the  Saints  on  Earth  above  those  in  Heaven,'  and  of 
another  entitled  '  The  Slaughter  of  the  Witnesses.' 

Nicholas  Street,  the  teacher,  after  the  removal  of  Mr 
Hooke  to  New  Haven,  became  the  sole  pastor  of  the 
church,  and  remained  in  Taunton,  probably  to  1658,  or 
1659. 

In  1659,  he  succeeded  Hooke  at  New  Haven,  (a  coinci- 
dence somewhat  singular,)  and  remained  there  as  the 
coadjutor  of  Davenport  until  the  removal  of  the  latter  to 
Boston  in  1667,  where  he  was  called  as  the  successor  of 
Wilson.  Street  then  remained  the  sole  minister  of  New 
Haven  until  his  death,  April  22,  1674. 

He  maintained  a  high  standing  amongst  the  ministers  of 
New  England,  both  in  the  colonies  of  Plymouth  and  Con- 
necticut, and  is  mentioned  in  terms  of  respect  by  several 
of  the  early  writers  on  New  England  affairs.* 

been  vacated  by  his  prowess  in  battle,  and  by  the  audacity  of  his  policy  in 
council,  cannot  be  questioned.  In  his  familiar  discourse  with  his  chaplain  while 
disclaiming  all  personal  views,  he  disclosed  the  arguments  by  anticipation,  to 
which,  circumstances  might  eventually  have  compelled  him  to  resort  in  self 
defence. — In  fact,  there  never  was  in  a  human  bosom  such  a  conflict  between 
the  aspirations  of  a  usurping  ambition,  and  the  convictions  of  sound  wisdom. 
At  length  that  unerring  sagacity  whether  of  instinct,  or  of  inspiration,  by  which 
he  was  always  directed,  saved  him  from  the  great  mistake  of  exchanging  the 
actual  possession  of  a  power  far  transcending  the  constitutional  powers  of  the 
crown,  for  the  barren  emblems  of  royalty.  His  name  alone  was  his  crown  and 
sceptre. 

*  None  of  his  posterity  remain  in  Taunton.  Samuel  Street  appears  in  the 
Harvard  catalogue  as  a  graduate,  in  1664,  and  if  he  was  the  son  of  the  minis- 
ter, he  must  have  been  born  in  Taunton.     He  was  ordained  pastor  of  Walling- 


296  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

SANDWICH. 

In  1637,  a  settlement  was  commenced  at  Sandwich  by 
emigrants  from  Lynn  in  Massachusetts,  the  Indian  Sau- 
gus.  It  was  not  incorporated  until  1639.  It  was  grant- 
ed originally  to  Mr  Edmund  Freeman,  Henry  Feake, 
Thomas  Dexter,  and  others. 

In  the  order  of  court  by  which  Sandwich  was  incorpo- 
rated, it  is  described  as '  beginning  westerly  by  the  dividing 
line  between  the  town  of  Plymouth  and  the  said  town  of 
Sandwich,  and  on  the  east  by  the  line  which  divides  the 
town  last  mentioned  from  the  town  of  Barnstable,  which 
runs  northeast  to  the  sea  ;  and  southwest  into  the  woods  ; 
and  is  bounded  northerly  by  the  sea  ;  southerly,  partly  by 
the  dividing  line  between  them  and  Suckanusset,  and 
partly  by  the  Indians'  land,  according  to  the  known  and 
accustomed  boundaries.' 

The  first  minister  of  Sandwich  was  William  Leveridge. 
He  arrived  at  Salem  from  FiUgland,  October  10,  1633.  It 
was  intended  that  he  should  officiate  at  Wiggin's  planta- 
tion, (Dover,  N.  H.)  then  a  plantation  of  lord  Say  and 
Sele,  but  his  support  being  insufficient,  he  came  to  Bos- 
ton, and  on  the  9th  of  August,  1635,  was  admitted  a 
member  of  that  church.  He  assisted  Mr  Partridge  at 
Duxbury  a  short  time,  and  then  removed  to  Sandwich. 
The  precise  period  of  his  removal  is  not  known,  but  he 
was  there  in  1640.  He  had  been  in  the  ministry  in  Eng- 
land. He  introduced  some  novelties  in  the  celebration 
of  the  Eucharist,  as  to  which,  he  had  adopted  the  notions 
of  Dr  Chauncy,  and  was  much  engaged  in  instructing  the 

ford  in  Connecticut,  in  1674,  and  remained  there  until  January,  1717.  Nicho- 
las Street  was  ordained  minister  of  East  Haven  in  1754,  and  died  a  few  years 
since  at  an  age  exceeding  a  hundred  years.  The  posterity  of  Mr  Street  are 
to  be  sought  in  Connecticut,  and  probably  some  in  Canada. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  297 

Indians,  who  were  numerous  in  the  vicinity  of  Sand-wich,* 
Hitherto  the  law-making  power  had  been  exercised  by 
the  whole  body  of  the  freemen  when  assembled  in  a  gen- 
eral court.  The  extension  of  the  settlements  created  a 
necessity  for  delegating  this  power,  inasmuch  as  the 
distance  of  some  from  the  place  of  assembly  was  so 
great,  that  a  general  and  constant  attendance  was  not 
only  inconvenient,  but  often  impossible.  Induced  by 
these  considerations,  the  whole  court  at  a  session  in  J  638, 
passed  an  act  in  these  words.  '  Whereas,  complaint  is 
made  that  the  freemen  are  put  to  many  inconveniences, 
and  great  expenses,  by  their  continual  attendance  at  the 
courts  ;  it  is  therefore  enacted  by  the  court,  and  the  au- 
thority thereof,  for  the  ease  of  the  several  towns  of  this 
government,  that  each  town  shall  make  choice  of  two  of 
their  freemen,  and  the  town  of  Plymouth  of  four,  to  be 
committees  or  deputies  to  join  with  the  bench,  to  enact 
and  make  all  such  laws  and  ordinances,  as  shall  be  judged 
to  be  good  and  wholesome  for  the  whole,  provided  that 
the  laws  they  do  enact  shall  be  propounded,  one  court  to 
be  considered  of  till  the  next,  and  then  to  be  confirmed 
if  they  shall  be  approved  of,  except  the  case  require  pres- 
ent confirmation  ;  and  if  any  act  shall  be  confirmed  by 
the  court  and  committees,  which  upon  further  delibera- 
tion shall  prove  prejudicial  to  the  whole,  that  the  freemen 
at  the  next  election  court,  after  meeting  together,  may  re- 
peal the  same  and  enact  any  other  useful  for  the  whole, 
and    that   every    township    shall   bear  their   committee's 

*  The  precise  time  when  Mr  Leveredge  left  Sandwich  is  not  ascertained. 
He  resided  there  some  time.  In  1657,  he  was  employed  hy  the  commissioners 
of  the  United  Colonies  as  a  missionary.  In  1674,  he  resided  at  Nantucket, 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Province  of  New  York,  where  he  was  sta- 
tioned probably  as  an  Indian  missionary. 
38 


298  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

charges,  which  is  two  shillings  and  sixpence  a  day,  and 
that  such  as  are  not  freemen  but  have  taken  the  oath  of 
fidelity,  and  are  masters  of  families,  and  inhabitants  of 
the  said  town,  as  they  are  to  bear  part  in  the  charges  of 
the  committees,  are  to  have  a  vote  in  the  choice  of  them, 
provided  they  choose  them  only  of  the  freemen  of  the 
said  town  whereof  they  are  ;  but  if  such  committees  shall 
be  insufficient  or  troublesome,  that  then  the  bench  and 
the  other  committees  may  dismiss  them,  and  the  town  to 
choose  other  freemen  in  their  places.' 

By  this  act,  the  government  which  heretofore  very  nearly 
approached  a  pure,  was  changed  to  a  representative  de- 
mocracy, and  the  whole  community  acquiesced  in  the 
change  without  complaint,  so  clearly'were  they  convinced 
of  its  necessity.  The  popular  power  was  still  guarded, 
and  the  people,  at  their  will,  could  resume  the  power  of 
repealing  obnoxious  laws  and  of  enacting  substitutes, 
although  they  did  not  retain  the  general  power  of  legis- 
lation. Popular  opinion  seemed  to  be  recognised  as  the 
real  foundation  of  all  legislative  proceedings.  A  great 
power  however,  was  given  to  the  assistants  and  committee 
or  deputies,  which  was  the  right  of  expelling  from  their 
body  any  that  should  be  '  insufficient  and  troublesome,'  two 
words  to  which  such  a  latitudinarian  construction  might 
have  been  given,  that  the  law  might  have  been  perverted 
into  an  engine  of  arbitrary  power,  and  an  instrument  to 
get  rid  of  members  who  had  the  industry  and  sagacity  to 
discover  abuses  and  the  boldness  to  proclaim  them.  A 
people  very  jealous  of  their  liberties  would  not  have  con- 
sented to  such  a  provision. 

At  the  time  of  the  passage  of  this  law  there  were  only 
three  towns  in  this  little  commonwealth,  viz.  Plymouth, 
Scituate,  and  Duxbury.  Rexham  or  Marshfield,  was  yet 
a  part  of  Duxbury,  and  Cohannet  or  Taunton   although 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  «;>99 

settled  and  a  church  either  gathered  or  about  to  be  gath- 
ered was  unincorporated.  After  the  passage  of  the  law, 
and  before  the  next  meeting  of  the  court,  three  important 
settlements  were  established  on  Cape  Cod,  viz.  one  at 
Mattacheest,  or  Cummaquid,  called  Barnstable,  one  at 
Pocasset  called  Sandwich  which  has  already  been  men- 
tioned, and  one  at  Mattacheest  called  Yarmputh. 

BARNSTABLE. 

A  large  proportion  of  the  settlers  of  Scituate  became 
dissatisfied  with  their  situation  and  desirous  of  a  chance  : 
amongst  the  most  zealous  of  those  who  were  for  removing 
was  Mr  Lothrop  the  pastor.  At  first  they  designed  to 
remove  to  Sepeican,  (now  Rochester)  and  in  1638,  the 
lands  there  were  granted  by  the  general  court  to  Thomas 
Besbeech,  (Bisbee)  James  Cudworth,  William  Gilson, 
Anthony  Annable,  Henry  Cobb,  Henry  Rowley,  Edward 
Foster,  and  Robert  Linnett,  a  committee  of  Scituate,  '  for 
the  seating  of  a  township  for  a  congregation.'  This  grant 
was  not  accepted,  and  the  Sepeican  lands  were  not  settled 
until  after  Philip's  war. 

In  1639,  Mr  Lothrop,  and  a  majority  of  his  church  re- 
moved from  Scituate  and  settled  Barnstable.  Those 
who  went  to  Barnstable  were 

Anthony  Annable,  came  to  Plymouth  in  the  Fortune,  1621,  died  in  1673,  a  free- 
man 1633. 

Henry  Cobb,  died  in  1679,  ruling  elder,  a  freeman  1633. 

Isaac  Robinson,  the  son  of  the  pastor  of  the  Leyden  church,  a  freeman  1633. 

James  Cudworth,  afterwards  general  in  Philip's  war,  an  assistant,  returned  to 
Scituate,  a  freeman  in  1634. 

Samuel  Fuller,  son  of  the  physician  of  the  colony,  came  with  his  father  1620 1 
a  freeman  1634. 

John  Cooper,  he  gave  by  will  one  half  of  his  large  estate  to  the  church,  a  free- 
man 1634. 

Henry  Rowley,  a  freeman  in  1634. 

George  Lewis,  a  freeman  in  1636. 


300  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Benjamin  Lombard,  a  freeman  in  1636. 

Rev.  John  Lothrop,  a  freeman  in  1637. 

Henry  Bourne,  a  freeman  in  1637. 

Samuel  Hinckley,  a  freeman  in  1637,  father  of  Thomas   Hinckley  the  last 

governor. 
Edward  Fitzrandle,  a  freeman  in  163S. 
William  Casely,  a  freeman  in  1639. 
Robert  Linnett,  a  freeman  in  1639. 
Mr  Thomas  Dimmack,  a  freeman  in  1639. 
Henry  Ewell,       ^ 
William  Crocker,  | 

Robert  Shelley,     ^  these  admitted  to  the  oath  of  fidelity. 
Isaac  Wells,  j 

Edwai-d  Caseley,  j 

In  1640,  William  Parker,  and  )    ^^^^  ^j^^^^  j.  ^^  ^^.^^^^^^ 
in  1649,  John  Allen,  ^ 

Mr  Lothrop  the  first  pastor  both  of  Scituate  and  Barn- 
stable was  according  to  Neal,  '  a  man  of  learning  and  of 
a  meek  and  quiet  spirit.'  Morton  says,  '  he  was  a  man  of 
an  humble  and  broken  heart  and  spirit.  Lively  in  dis- 
pensation of  the  word  of  God,  studious  of  peace,  furnished 
with  godly  contentment,  willing  to  spend  and  to  be  spent 
for  the  cause  and  church  of  Christ.'  He  remained  the 
pastor  of  this  church  until  he  died,  November  8th,  1653.* 

*  Mr  Lothrop  is  mentioned  by  Anthony  Wood  as  having  been  celebrated. 
He  held  the  living  of  Egerton  in  Kent  where  he  resided  ;  but  embracing  the 
sentiments  of  the  puritans,  he  renounced  his  orders,  and,  going  to  London,  suc- 
ceeded Henry  Jacob.  Jacob  fled  from  the  persecution  of  Archbishop  Bancroft 
and  went  to  Leyden,  and  Neal  says  that  after  a  conference  with  Mr  Robinson, 
he  embraced  his  views,  and  in  1610  published  a  treatise  at  Leyden  entitled 
'  the  divine  beginning  and  institution  of  Christ's  true,  visible,  and  material 
church.'  Sometime  after  he  returned  to  England,  and  having  imparted  to  the 
most  learned  puritans  of  those  times  his  design  of  setting  up  a  separate  congre- 
gation, it  was  not  condemned  as  unlawful,  considering  there  was  no  prospect  of 
a  national  reformation.  Mr  Jacob  having  summoned  several  of  his  friends  to- 
gether, and  obtained  their  consent  to  unite  in  church  fellowship  for  enjoying 
the  ordinances  of  Christ  in  the  purest  manner,  they  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
first  independent  or  Congregational  Church  in  England  after  the  following 
manner :  having  observed  a  day  of  solemn  fasting  and  prayer  for  a  blessing- 
upon  their  undertaking,  towards  the  close  of  their  solemnity,  each  of  them 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  39 1 

YARMOUTH. 

The   people  of  Lynn   in  Massachusetts   having    estab- 
lished a  settlement  at  Sandwich,  in  163S  another  attempt 

made  open  confession  of  their  faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  then  standing 
up  together  they  joined  hands,  and  solemnly  covenanted  with  each  other  ia 
the  presence  of  Almighty  God,  to  walk  together  in  all  God's  ways  and  ordinan- 
ces, according  as  he  had  already  revealed,  or  should  further  make  known  to 
them.  '  Mr  Jacob  was  then  chosen  pastor  by  the  suffrages  of  the  brotherhood, 
and  others  were  appointed  to  the  office  of  deacons  with  fasting  and  prayer,  and 
■'imposition  of  hands,' — this  was  in  1616.  In  1624,  Jacob  v/ent  to  Virginia,  and 
soon  after  died.  Mr  Lothrop  was  chosen  to  succeed  him,  and  so  became  the 
second  Independent  or  Congregational  minister  in  England.  He  continued  the 
pastor  of  this  little  church  until  April  29,  1632,  '  at  which  time  his  congregation 
■was  discovered  by  Tomlinson,  the  bishop's  pursuevant,  at  the  house  of  Mr  Hum- 
phrey Barnet,  a  brewer's  clerk  in  Blackfryars,  where  fortytwo  of  them  were 
apprehended,  and  only  eighteen  escaped  ;  of  those  that  were  taken,  some  were 
confined  in  the  Clink,  others  in  the  new  prison  and  the  gate  house,  where  they 
continued  about  two  years,  and  were  then  released  upon  bail,  except  Mr  Lo- 
throp, for  whom  no  favor  could  be  obtained ;  he  therefore  petitioned  the  king, 
(Charles  I,  archbishop  Laud  having  refused  every  favor,)  for  liberty  to  depart 
the  kingdom,  which  being  granted,  he  went  in  1634  to  New  England  with 
about  thirty  of  his  followers.'  During  his  imprisonment  his  wife  died ;  he 
■obtained  liberty  from  the  Bishop  to  visit  her  once.  Morten  says,  '  the  children 
after  the  death  of  their  mother,  repaired  to  the  bishop  at  Lambeth,  and  made 
known  to  him  their  great  distress,  and  he  shewed  them  compassion,  and  con- 
sented their  father  should  be  released  from  prison.'  It  is  worthy  of  note  that 
the  first  Baptist  society  in  England  sprung  up  in  Mr  Lothrop's.  '  One  of  his 
people  carrying  his  child  to  be  rebaptised,  some  of  the  congregation  insisting 
that  it  should  be  baptised,  because  the  other  administration  was  not  valid  ;  but 
when  the  question  was  put,  it  was  carried  in  the  negative,  and  resolved  by  the 
majority  not  to  make  any  declaration  at  present,  whether  or  not,  parish  churches 
were  true  churches.  Upon  this  some  of  the  more  rigid,  and  others  who 
were  dissatisfied  about  the  lawfulness  of  infant  baptism,  desired  their  dismis- 
sion, which  was  granted  them."  Mr  Jacie,  a  man  of  respectability  and  learn- 
ing, was  chosen  the  minister  of  the  seceders,  and  the  two  churches  continued 
to  commune  together. 

Four  sons  came  with   Mr  Lothrop  from  England,  two  more  were  born  in 

America.     Thomas  settled  at  Barnstable  ;  from  him  descended  the  respectable 

family  of  this  name,  in  the  county  of  Plymouth.     Samuel   settled  at  Norwich 

lUn  Connecticut ;  from  him   descended  the  numerous  families  of  Lothrops'  ia 

Connecticut,  New  York,  Vermont,  and  in  the  county  of  Hampdea  ia  Massa- 


302  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

was  made  from  the  same  quarter  to  establish  another  set- 
tlement at  Mattakeese,  (now  Yarmouth.)  Foremost  in 
this  enterprise  was  the  Rev.  Stephen  Batchelor.  the  late 
pastor  of  Lynn,  who  at  the  advanced  age  of  seventysix,  at 
an  inclement  season  of  the  year  traversed  the  whole  coun- 
try between  Lynn  and  Mattakeese,  (being  more  than  a 
hundred  miles)  on  foot. 

The  company  with  whom  Batchelor  was  associated 
being  extremely  poor,  and  encountering  many  difficulties, 
abandoned  the  undertaking,  which  was  afterwards  resumed 
by  others. 

Mr  Batchelor  arrived  at  Boston,  June  5th,  1632,  then 
being  seventyone.  He  was  soon  established  as  the  pastor 
of  Saugus  (since  Lynn.)  His  life  in  America  was  one 
constant  scene  of  turbulence,  dispute,  and  accusation. 
As  early  as  October,  1632,  he  was  required  by  the  court, 
'  to  forbear  exercising  his  gifts  as  a  pastor  or  teacher  pub- 
licly in  our  patent,  unless  it  be  to  those  he  brought  with 
him,  for  his  contempt  of  authority,  and  until  some  scan- 
dals be  removed,'  but  the  court  March  4th,  1633,  removed 
this  inhibition. 

Governor  Winthrop  says  '  he  was  convented  before  the 
magistrates.  The  cause  was  for  that,  coming  out  of  En- 
gland with  a  small  body  of  six  or  seven  persons,  and 
having  since  received  in  many  more  at  Saugus,  and  con- 
tention growing  between  him  and  the  greater  part  of  his 
church,  (who  had  with  the  rest  received  him  for  their  pas- 
tor,) he  desired  dismission  for  himself  and  his  first  mem- 

chusetts,  of  which  last  was  the  late  venerable  divine,  Dr  Lothrop  of  West 
Springfield,  father  of  the  Hon.  Samuel  Lothrop,  now  president  of  the  senate. 
From  Joseph,  Barnabas,  and  John,  are  descended  the  Lothrops  of  Barnstable 
county,  and  from  Benjamin  one  of  the  sons  born  in  England,  the  family  in  Es- 
sex county  is  descended,  amongst  whom  was  the  gallant  soldier,  who  fell  iis 
PhiUp's  war. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  303 

bers,  which  being  granted,  upon  supposition  that  he  would 
leave  the  town,  (as  he  had  given  out)  he  with  the  said  six 
or  seven  persons  presently  renewed  their  old  covenant, 
intending  to  raise  another  church  in  Saugus,  whereat  the 
most  and  chief  of  the  town  being  offended,  for  that  it 
would  cross  their  intentions  of  calling  Mr  Peter  or  some 
other  minister,  they  complained  to  the  magistrates,  who 
foreseeing  thedistraction  which  was  like  to  come  by  this 
course,  had  forbidden  him  to  proceed  in  any  such  church 
way,  until  the  cause  were  considered  by  the  other  minis- 
ters, &c.  But  he  refused  to  desist.  Whereupon  they 
sent  for  him,  and  after  his  delay,  day  after  day,  the  marshal 
was  sent  to  fetch  him.  Upon  his  appearance  and  sub- 
mission, and  promise  to  remove  out  of  the  town  within 
three  months,  he  was  discharged.' 

After  he  left  Mattakeese  he  was  at  Newbury. 

In  1641  he  was  pastor  of  the  church  at  Hampton  and 
then  at  the  age  of  eighty  attempted  the  chastity  of  a 
woman,  for  which  he  was  repentant,  and  then  says  Gov. 
Winthrop,  would  repent  of  his  repentance.  He  was  ex- 
communicated ;  after  two  years  the  excommunication 
was  removed,  but  he  was  forbidden  to  exercise  the  office 
of  pastor.  In  Hampton,  until  1644,  there  was  nothing 
but  contentions  between  Batchelor  and  Dalton  the  elder, 
both  having  strong  parties.  This  continued  until  Batch- 
elor was  called  to  Exeter  in  1644.  His  settlement  there 
was  prevented  by  the  express  interference  of  the  court. 

This  fiery  and  quarrelsome  old  man  finished  his  turbu- 
lent life  after  it  had  been  protracted  beyond  ninety  years. 

In  the  summer  of  1639,  the  permanent  settlement  of 
Yarmouth  was  commancei  by  another  company  from  Lynn, 
and  it  was  soon  after  incorporated  as  a  town.  Its  northern 
part  had  been  called  by  the  Indians  Mattakees,  or  JMatta- 
keeset,  its  northeastern  part  Hockanom,  and  it  comprised 
originally  the  present  towns  of  Yarmouth  and  Dennis. 


304  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

According  to  Mr  Savage,  (unquestionable  authority  ore 
such  subjects)  the  Rev.  Marmaduke  Matthews  was  the 
first  pastor  of  Yarmouth.  He  arrived  at  Boston  in  the 
summer  of  1638,  and  is  styled  by  Governor  Winthrop  a 
'godly  minister.'  He  remained  at  Yarmouth  but  a  short 
time,  and  was  gone  (probably)  in  1642.  He  preached  for 
a  time  at  Nantasket  (Hull)  about  the  year  1650,  and  was 
finally  settled  at  Maiden.  While  at  Hull,  Johnson  the  au- 
thor of 'the  Wonder  Working  Providence,  &c,'  says  '  he  lost 
the  approbation  of  some  able  widerstanding  men,  among 
both  magistrates  and  ministers,  by  weak  and  unsafe  ex- 
pressions in  his  teaching.'  This  led  to  a  serious  investi- 
gation on  the  part  of  the  magistrates,  and  Messrs  Brad- 
street,  Hathorne,  Browne,  Johnson,  Glover,  Lusher,  Ather- 
ton,  and  Symonds,  were  appointed  to  investigate  the 
charges  against  Matthews.  The  result  was  unfavorable 
to  tiie  pastor,  but  he  was  nevertheless  called  to  Maiden.^ 

tr'^o     This   year  is  distinguished  for  the  meeting  of  the 
first    representative    legislative  assembly   in    gen- 
eral court. 

*  He  preferred  the  following  petition  to  the  general  court."' 
'  Tothe  honored  court. — Maimaduke  Matthews  humbly  sheweth,  that  through, 
mercy  I  am  in  some  measure  sensible  of  my  great  insufficiency  to  declare  the 
counsel  of  God  unto  his  people,  (as  I  ought  to  do)  and  how  (through  the  dark- 
ness and  ignorance  that  is  in  me)  I  am  very  apt  to  let  fall  some  expres.sions  that 
are  weak  and  inconvenient;  and  I  do  acknowledge,  that  in  several  of  those 
expression?  referred  to  the  examination  of  the  honored  committee,  I  might  (had 
the  Lord  seen  it  so  good)  have  expressed  and  delivered-  myself  in  terms  more 
free  fioni  exception  ;^  and  it  is  my  desire  (the  Lord  strengthening)  as  much  as- 
in  me  lieth,  to  avoid  all  appearances  of  evil  therein  for  tiiae  to  come,  as  in  all 
other  respects  whatsoever;  which, that  I  may  do,  I  huinbly  desire  your  hearty 
prayers  to  God  for  me,  and  in  special,  that  I  may  take  heed  to  the  ministry  com- 
Hiitted  to  me,  that  I  may  fulfil  it  to  the  praise  of  God  and  profit  of  his  people. 
'  Your  humble  servant  in  any  service  of  Christ, 
28.8.1651.  '  Marmaduke  Matthews. 

*  To  my  much  honored  friend,  Mr  Edward 
Raw-son,  at  his  house  in  B  ston,  these  present.' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  305 

Governor  Bradford  was  again  called  to  the  chief  magis- 
tracy, Governor  Prince  was  elected  first  assistant.  The 
other  assistants  were  Captain  Standish,  John  Alden,  John 
Brown,  William  Collier,  Timothy  Hatherly,  John  Jenny. 

The  committees  or  deputies  chosen  in  the  several  towns, 
were  as  follows. 

From  Plymouth,  William  Paddy,  Manasseh  Kempton,  Jr, 
John  Cooke,  Jr,  John  Dunham. 

From  Duxbury,  Jonathan  Brewster,  Edmund  Chandler. 

From  Scituate,  Anthony  Annable,  Edward  Foster. 

Taunton  or  Cohannet,  Mr  John  Gilbert,  Henry  An- 
drews. 

Sandwich,  Richard  Bourne,  John  Vincent. 

Yarmouth,  Thomas  Payne,  Philip  Tabor. 

Barnstable  was  not  represented  in  this  court  until  De- 
cember, and  then  Mr  Joseph  Hull,  and  Mr  Thomas  Dim- 
mack,  appeared  as  deputies. 

William  Gilson  who  had  been  an  assistant,  died  this 
year  at  Scituate.* 

Massasoiet  or  Woosamequin,  (which  last  name  he  had 
latterly  assumed  according  to  the  custom  of  the  Indians) 
and  his  son  Moananam,  (Wamsutta,  afterwards  called  Alex- 
ander) coming  into  open  court  at  Plymouth  on  the  25th  of 
September,  desired  that  the  ancient  treaty  which  had  been 
made  in  1621  might  remain  inviolable,  to  which  they 
promised  that  they  would  faithfully  adhere.  '  And  the 
said  Woosamequin  or  Massasoiet,  and  Moanam,  otherwise 
called  Wamsutta,'  did  also  promise  to  the  court  '  that  he 
nor  they  shall  or  will  needlessly  and  unjustly  raise  any 
quarrels,  or  do  any  wrongs  to  other  natives,  to  provoke 
them  to  war  against  him  ;  and  that  he  or  they  shall  not 
give,  sell,  or  convey,  any  of  his  or  their  lands,  territories, 

*  Mr  Gilson  left  no  children  ;  his  wife  survived  him. 

39 


306         MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

or  possessions  whatsoever,  to  any  person  or  persons  whom- 
soever, without  the  privity  and  consent  of  the  government 
of  Plymouth  aforesaid,  other  than  such  as  the  said  gov- 
ernment shall  send  or  appoint,  on  which  conditions  the 
said  Woosamequin,  or  Moanam  iiis  son,  for  themselves  and 
their  successors  did  then  faithfully  promise  to  observe  and 
keep;  and  the  whole  court  in  the  name  of  the  whole  gov 
ernment  for  each  town  respectively,  did  then  likewise 
ratify  and  confirm  the  aforesaid  ancient  league  and  con- 
federacy :  and  did  also  further  promise  to  the  said  Woo- 
samequin, and  Moanam  his  son,  and  his  successors,  that 
they  shall  and  will  from  time  to  time  defend  the  said 
Woosamequin,  and  Moanam  his  son,  and  their  successors, 
when  need  and  occasion  shall  require  against  all  such  as 
shall  unjustly  rise  up  against  them  to  wrong  or  oppress 
them  unjustly.' 

In  this  treaty,  the  government  of  Plymouth  seem  to 
have  taken  a  proper  precaution  to  prevent  the  Indians 
from  selling  their  lands  to  individuals  ;  a  practice  which 
would  have  been  attended  with  pernicious  consequences, 
and  with  endless  lawsuits,  and  although  it  has  been  sneer- 
ingly  said  that  their  precautions  only  prevented  individuals 
from  cheating  the  Indians  so  that  they  might  do  it  them- 
selves under  color  of  law  ;  yet  the  intrigues  and  de- 
ceptions of  individuals  would  soon  have  stripped  the 
Indians  of  all  their  lands,  if  the  government  had  not 
declared  all  such  sales  invalid,  and  if  they  had  not  induced 
the  chiefs,  father  and  son,  to  stipulate  that  none  such 
should  be  made. 

Massasoiet  appears  to  have  been  extremely  anxious  to 
preserve  a  firm  peace  with  the  English,  and  his  care  ex- 
tended to  posterity,  first  by  causing  his  eldest  son  to  enter 
into  the  same  euL^agements  which  he  himself  had  contract- 
ed with  the  English,  and  afterwards,  when  his  otiier  unfor- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  307 

tunate  and  celebrated  son  grew  up  to  manhood,  he  took 
care  that  he  also  should  engage  himself  to  pursue  the 
same  policy.  This  kind-hearted  but  sagacious  chief  took 
every  mode  which  human  wisdom  could  devise  to  preserve 
his  people  from  the  ruinous  consequences  of  English  hos- 
tility, not  only  during  his  life,  but  to  bind  his  successors 
to  the  same  engagements  after  his  death,  but  the  tide  of 
fate  rolled  on  in  its  accustomed  channel,  and  human 
nature  remained  the  same  :  the  savage  yielded  to  the 
social  man,  and  the  children  of  the  forest  fled  as  usual 
from  the  children  of  civil  society. 

.^.^  Mr  Bradford  was  again  elected  governor,  and  Mr 
Prince  first  assistant.  Captain  Standish,  Mr  Brown, 
Mr  Collier,  and  Mr  Hatherly,  were  reelected  assistants,  to 
which  office  Edmund  Freeman  of  Sandwich  was  also 
chosen  for  the  first  time. 

The  deputies  from  Plymouth  were  reelected. 

Duxbury  elected  William  Bassett. 

Scituate  reelected  Edward  Foster,  and  elected  Hum- 
phrey Turner  in  the  place  of  Mr  Annable,  who  had  re- 
moved to  Barnstable. 

Taunton  elected  Edward  Case,  and  Walter  Dean. 

Sandwich  reelected  Mr  Bourne,  and  elected  George 
Allen. 

Yarmouth  reelected  Philip  Tabor. 

During  this  year  that  part  of  Duxbury  at  Green  Harbor 
and  the  territory  adjacent  on  the  ocean  called  Rexham, 
where  a  church  had  already  been  gathered,  was  incorpo- 
rated into  a  town  and  called  Marshfield.  There  was 
however  no  regular  pastor  ordained  over  this  church  until 
1642. 

In  1637,  lands  were  granted  at  Green's  Harbor  to 
Edward  Winslow  and  others  : — 'to  prevent  any  further 
scattering  from  this  place,  of  the  town  of  Plymouth,  and 


308  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

weakening  of  the  same,  it  was  thought  best  to  give  out 
some  good  farms  to  special  persons,  who  would  promise 
to  live  at  Plymouth,  and  likely  to  be  helpful  to  the  church 
or  commonwealth,  and  so  to  tye  the  lands  to  Plymouth,  as 
farms  for  the  same,  and  there  they  might  keep  their  cattle 
and  tillage  by  some  servants,  and  retain  their  dwellings 
here ;  and  so  some  special  lands  were  granted  at  a  place 
called  Green's  Harbor,  where  no  allotments  had  been 
made  in  the  former  division.'  This  arrangement  was  soon 
found  to  be  impracticable,  and  Governor  Winslow  and  sev- 
eral others  soon  established  themselves  there  as  permanent 
settlers.  Governor  Winslow  erected  a  handsome  house 
and  called  his  place  Careswell. 

Governor  Bradford  on  the  2d  of   March    having 
surrendered  to  the  freemen,  the  patent  of  the  colony, 
which  had  been  taken  in  his  name,  (reserving  three  tracts, 
described  in  the  instrument  of  assignment,   for  the  pur- 
chasers or  old  comers,'*)   charters  to  some  if  not  all  the 

"*  Judge  Davis  in  his  Edition  of  Morton's  Memorial,  says  the  purchasers 
or  old  comers  are  thus  described  in  the  assignment  of  the  patent : — '  The  said 
William  Bradford  and  those  first  Instruments,  termed  and  called  in  sundry  or- 
ders upon  public  record  the  purchasers  or  old  comers,  witness  two  in  especiall, 
the  one  bearing  date  the  third  of  March,  1639,  the  other  in  December  the  first, 
1640,  whereby  they  are  distinguished  from  other  the  freemen  and  inhabitants 
of  said  corporation.'     He  then  subjoins  the  names  as  follows. 

William  Bradford,  the  Governor,  Joseph  Rogers, 

Thomas  Prence,  John  Faunce, 

William  Brewster,  Stephen  Deane, 

Edward  Winslow,  Thomas  Cushman, 

John  Alden,  Robert  Hicks, 

John  Jenney,  Thomas  Morton, 

Isaac  Allerton,  Anthony  Annable, 

Capt.  Miles  Standish,  Samuel  Fuller, 

William  CoUyare,  (Collier,)  Francis  Eaton, 

John  Rowland,  Francis  Cooke, 

Manasseh  Kempton,  Edward  Doten,  (iJotey.-) 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.         399 

towns  were  issued,  and  the  rights  of  the  whole  derived 
through  the  patent  were  imparted  to  the  several  corpora- 
tions so  far  as  their  limits  extended.  These  limits  were 
now  established  and  defined.  Plymouth  now  a  town, 
included  the  territory  of  the  present  town,  and  also  that 
which  is  now  embraced  by  the  towns  of  Plympton  —  (VVen- 
atukset) — Kingston,  (Weteketuket) — Wareham,  (Agawam 
and  Weweantic) — Carver,  (Wankinquag,)  and  part  of  Hali- 
fax, (Monponset.) 

Scituate  was  afterwards  enlarged,  part  of  the  town  as 
it  then  existed  has  been  annexed  to  Marshfield. 

Duxbury  then  included  part  of  Pembroke. 

Cuthbert  Cuthbertson,  Abraham  Pearse, 

William  Bassett,  Stephen  Tracy, 

Francis  Sprague,  Jonathan  Brewster, 

The  heirs  of  John  Crackston,  Edward  Bangs. 

Edward  Bumpus,  Nicholas  Snow, 

William  Palmer,  Stephen  Hopkins, 

Peter  Browne,  Thomas  Clarke, 

Henry  Samson,  Ralph  Wallen, 

Experience  Mitchell,  William  Wright, 

Philip  Delanoy.  Elizabeth  Warren,  (widow.) 

John  Winslow,  Moyses  Simonson,  (Moses  Simmons,) 

John  Shaw,  George  Sowle, 

Josiah  Pratt,  Edward  Holdman, 

John  Adams,  Mr  James  Shirley, 

John  Billington,  Mr  Beauchamp, 

Phineas  Pratt,  Mr  Andrews, 

Samuel  Fuller,  Mr  Hatherly, 

Clement  Brigges,  Mr  "William  Thomas, — in  all  5S. 

The  five  last  names  were  those  of  merchants  in  England,  who  were  united 
in  the  trade  of  the  colony.     Mr  Hatherly  and  Mr  Thomas  came  over. 

*  All  the  names  excepting  the  five  last,  and  that  of  William  Collier  will  be 
found  in  the  list  relative  to  the  division  of  cattle.  '  Messrs  Collier,  Shirley, 
Beauchamp,  Andrews,  Hatherly,  and  Thomas,  were  friends  in  England,  who 
united  with  Governor  Bradford  and  his  associates  in  hiring  the  trade  of  the  colo- 
ny for  six  years.    Those  engaged  in  the  contract  were  called  purchasers.' 


3 1  0  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Marshfield  was  not  at  this  time  so  extensive  as  it  was 
afterwards  made. 

Taunton  included  the  present  town,  Raynham,  and 
Berkley. 

The  limits  both  of  Sandwich  and  Barnstable  have  been 
unaltered. 

Yarmouth  comprised  the  present  town,  and  Dennis. 

All  the  territory  on  Cape  Cod  below  the  town  of  Dennis 
was  yet  in  possession  of  the  natives. 

In  the  present  county  of  Plymouth,  the  several  towns 
now  called  Middleborough,  Rochester,  East,  North,  and 
West  Bridgewater,  Bridgewater,  Abington,  part  of  Hali- 
fax, part  of  Pembroke,  were  covered  by  no  grants.  And 
all  the  ancient  county  of  Bristol,  including  the  several 
towns  formerly  belonging  to  that  county  and  now  in 
Rhode  Island,  (excepting  the  grant  to  Taunton,  as  above 
mentioned)  was  held  by  the  Indians,  and  they  remained  on 
some  of  the  granted  lands,  particularly  at  Agawam,  (Ware- 
ham,)  and  Sandwich. 

Between  1636  and  1640,  but  few  additional  laws  were 
made.  In  1638,  the  court  say, '  whereas  divers  persons  unfit 
for  marriage,  both  in  regard  of  their  young  years,  and  also 
in  regard  of  their  weak  estate,  some  practising  the  inveig- 
ling of  men's  daughters  and  maids  under  guardianship  con- 
trary to  their  parents'  and  guardians'  liking,  and  of  maid 
servants  without  leave  and  liberty  of  their  masters.  They 
therefore  enacted  that  if  any  such  '  should  make  any  mo- 
tion of  marriage  to  any  such  females  without  leave  and 
consent  of  parents,  masters,  and  guardians,  they  should  be 
punished  by  a  fine  not  exceeding  £5,  or  corporal  punish- 
ment at  the  discretion  of  the  bench,  and  according  to  the 
nature  of  the  offence.' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  3  j  l 

Servants  coming  from  England  and  elsewhere,  "  and 
engaged  to  serve  a  master  for  some  time,"  were  not  to  be 
permitted  "  to  be  for  themselves  until  they  had  served  out 
the  time,  although  they  should  buy  it  out,  except  they 
have  been  housekeepers  or  masters  of  families,  or  meet  or 
fit  so  to  be.'" 

In  1639,  a  most  extraordinary  law  was  passed  for  '  pre- 
venting idleness  and  other  evils.'  The  grand  jurors  in 
each  town  were  authorised  '  to  take  a  special  view  and 
notice  of  all  persons,  married  or  single,  that  have  small 
means  to  maintain  themselves  and  are  supposed  to  live 
idly  and  loosely,  and  to  require  an  account  of  them  how 
they  live,  and  finding  some  delinquent,  to  order  a  consta- 
ble to  carry  them  before  a  magistrate  or  the  selectmen, 
'  to  deal  with  them  as  they  saw  fit.'  The  inquisitorial  and 
dictatorial  authority  given  to  grand  jurors  by  this  law,  (if 
now  in  force,)  would  convulse  society  with  perpetual  dis- 
putes, and  would  lead  to  a  violent  resistance  of  the  law. 
In  1640,  however,  by  an  additional  law,  it  was  provided 
that  every  complaint  should  be  made  on  oath. 

In  1639,  towns  were  allowed  to  make  such  orders  '  as 
should  be  needful  for  the  maintenance  of  good  neighbor- 
hood, and  to  set  penalties  on  delinquents,'  not  contrary  to 
public  acts,  and  were  empowered  to  raise  taxes. 

In  1640,  it  was  provided  that  the  military  companies 
should  each  be  trained  six  times  in  the  year,  and  the  chief 
offices  were  authorised  to  fine  absentees. 

In  1639,  profane  swearing  was  punished  by  putting 
the  offender  in  the  stocks  three  hours,  or  by  imprisonment, 
'  according  to  the  nature  and  quality  of  the  person.' 

In  the  same  year,  the  stealing  or  atterrpting  to  steal 
ships'  boats,  ammunition,  or  other  things,  was  made  felony 
and  so  to  be  punished. 

Tfie  laws  which  the  colonists  established  respecting  the 
Indians  (although  liable  to  objections)  upon  the  whole  seem 


312  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

to  have  been  wise,  just,  and  humane,  and  although  it  could 
scarcely  have  been  expected  that  these  heathens  should 
have  felt  any  reverence  for  the  sabbath  day,  yet  their 
piiius  neighbors  who  did  it,  cannot  be  blamed  for  their 
efforts  to  prevent  its  violation: — the  good  intentions  of 
the  pilgrims  cannot  be  doubted,  yet  the  policy  of  too 
zealous  efforts  to  enforce  the  observance  of  the  sabbath 
on  such  as  were  not  sensible  of  its  sanctity,  may  be  ques- 
tioned,— of  this  hereafter. 

In  1639,  all  trading  with  the  Indians  was  forbidden 
other  than  with  such  as  were  servants  to  the  English,  (by 
which  gold  or  silver  was  to  be  given  or  paid,)  under  a  pen- 
alty of  £24  ;  and  in  the  same  year  the  sale  of  strong 
liquors  was  forbidden  to  all  except  such  as  were  sick  or 
faint,  and  then  not  without  the  consent  of  a  magistrate 
or  in  case  there  was  none  in  the  town,  the  committee  or 
grand  jury  of  the  township,  under  a  penalty  of  £5. 

It  is  certainly  a  proof  of  a  kindly  and  just  disposition 
on  the  part  of  the  colonists  towards  the  Indians,  that  they 
should  have  endeavored  thus  early  to  protect  them  from 
the  arts  of  such  as  should  endeavor  in  their  traffic  to  im- 
pose upon  their  simplicity  and  ignorance,  and  they  endea- 
vored to  keep  them  by  every  legal  precaution  from  the  in- 
dulgence of  their  passion  for  spirituous  liquors,  which 
elsewhere  has  proved  their  bane  and  ruin. 

In  1639,  a  prison  was  erected  at  Plymouth. 


LITERATURE  AND  LITERARY  MEN. 

The  early  literature  of  New  England  has  been  unjustly 
depreciated.  The  notion  has  been  too  common  that  the 
puritans  although  pious,  sober,  and  moral,  were  illiterate 
and  i^rnorant.  It  is  true  their  circumstances  were  un- 
favorable  to    the    cultivation  of   learning  :  —  they   were 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  3x3 

compelled  to  work  on  the  lands  for  their  daily  subsistence, 
and  not  only  to  cultivate,  but  to  reclaim  them:  —  to  be 
watchful,  as  well  as  industrious,  for  they  were  surrounded 
on  all  sides  by  savages.  Before  1638,  there  was  not  a 
printing  press  in  the  American  colonies  :  —  One  was  then 
introduced  and  one  Daye  was  employed  as  a  printer,  who 
confined  his  labors  however  to  the  printing  of  the  free- 
man's oath,  an  almanack,  and  an  edition  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Psalms.  In  1639,  this  press  passed  into  the  hands  of 
Samuel  Green,  who  was  the  first  permanent  printer  in 
America. 

At  this  period,  (1639)  the  College  at  Cambridge  (which 
has  since  assumed  the  respectable,  and  now  venerated 
name  of  Harvard,  was  founded.)  This  beginning,  was 
made  within  nine  years  from  the  settlement  of  Massachu- 
setts.    The  first  degrees  were  conferred  in  1642. 

The  two  first  presidents  of  this  College  were  Henry 
Dunster,  and  Charles  Chauncy,  who  both  resided  at  Scit- 
uate  in  the  colony  of  Plymouth.  Mr  Dunster  (having 
embraced  the  principles  of  the  Anabaptists,)  although  a 
man  of  learning,  was  dismissed,  and  Mr  Chauncy,  to  whom 
the  same  objection  existed,  yet  being  a  man  of  transcend- 
ant  literary  attainments,  was  appointed  his  successor. 
It  is  believed  however,  that  the  peculiar  notions  of  Dr 
Chauncy  on  this  subject  were  confined  to  the  mode  of  ad- 
mission to  the  church  only,  and  did  not  extend  to  the 
withholding  of  the  rite  of  baptism  to  infants. 

Mr  Smith  the  first  pastor  of  Plymouth,  is  not  represented 
as  having  made  much  proficiency  in  literature,  but  his 
deficiencies  being  discovered,  he  was  rejected  both  at 
Salem  and  Plymouth  ;  but  it  must  be  recollected  that 
during  his  stay  at  Plymouth  the  people  were  constant 
attendants  on  the  preaching  of  Roger  Williams,  John 
Norton,  and  Dr  Chauncy. 
40 


314  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Rnwer  Williams  had  been  educated  at  the  university 
of  Oxford,  and  was  for  a  time  a  pupil  of  the  illustrious 
Coke,  and  a  minister  of  t!ie  establis.')ed  church  in  Eng- 
land. 

John  Lothrop,  (Lathropand  f.aythorp)  the  first  minister 
both  of  Scituate  and  Burnslal)/e,  was  distinguisiied  fur  his 
learning.  He  too  was  educated  at  Oxford,  and  is  men- 
tioned by  Anthony  Wood.  Neal  also  represents  him  as  a 
man  of  great  learning.  He  held  the  living  of  Egerton,  in 
Kent,  which  he  abandoned  and  became  the  second  pastor 
of  the  first  inrlepcjidenl  or  congregational  church  in 
England. 

President  Chauncy,  the  second  pastor  of  Scituate,  was 
eminently  distinguished  in  England.  He  was  educated 
in  the  school  of  Westminster,  and  in  the  university  of 
Cambridge,  and  was  the  intimate  friend  of  archbishop 
Usher  the  first  scholar  in  Europe. — From  his  great  know- 
ledge of  Hebrew  he  had  been  chosen  its  professor  at  the 
English  university  of  Cambridge,  and  such  was  his  accu- 
rate and  critical  knowledge  of  the  Greek,  that  after  he 
had  relinquished  the  Hebrew  professorship,  he  was  chosen 
Greek  professor  at  the  same  University.  He  was  settled 
in  the  church  at  Ware,  in  England,  and  fell  (like  Lothrop) 
under  the  persecution  of  Archbishop  Laud.  In  Latin  he 
expressed  himself  familiarly,  with  great  fluency,  ease,  and 
elegance. 

John  Norton  who  also  preached  at  Plymouth,  was  edu- 
cated at  Cambridge,  (England,)  and  was  one  of  the  first 
scholars  of  that  University.  He  was  afterwards  the  cu- 
rate of  Starford,  (Hertfordshire,)  his  native  place.  He  was 
urged  to  accept  a  fellowship  at  the  University,  which  he 
declined.  He  left  Plymouth  and  was  settled  at  Ipswich, 
and  afterwards  succeeded  Cotton  at  Boston.  He  wrote 
(according  to  Dr  Eliot,  'in  pure  elegant  Latin,')  an  answer 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  3^5 

to  the  questions  propounded  by  Apollonius  (at  the  request 
of  the  divines  of  Zealand,)  to  the  divines  of  New  England 
t6uching  church  government ; — Fuller,  in  his  church  his- 
tory, says  of  this,  '  of  all  the  authors  I  have  perused,  none 
to  me  vi'as  more  informative  than  Mr  John  Norton,  one  of 
no  less  learning  than  modesty.'  Mr  Norton  was  concerned 
in  the  revision  of  the  Cambridge  Platform.  He  wrote 
the  '  Meritorious  Price  of  Man's  Redemption,'  and  also  a 
work  of  great  celebrity,  entitled,  *  The  Orthodox  Evan- 
gelist.' His  life  of  Cotton  was  republished  in  England. 
He  also  wrote  a  controversial  tract  against  the  Quakers, 
and  a  letter  in  Latin  to  Mr  Drury  who  had  undeitaken  the 
pacification  of  the  reformed  churches. 

Ralph  Partridge,  the  first  minister  of  Duxbury  also 
received  a  University  education  in  England,  and  was  a 
minister  of  the  established  church   there. 

Hooke,  the  minister  of  Taunton,  as  a  writer,  was  far 
above  mediocrity.  He  is  spoken  of  by  all  his  contempo- 
raries as  a  learned  man.  His  two  works  were  entitled 
'  The  Privileges  of  the  Saints  on  Earth,'  and  '  The  Slaugh- 
ter of  the  Witnesses.'  His  letter  to  Governor  Wintfarop 
is  written  in  a  style  by  no  means  inelegant. 

Street,  the  second  minister  of  Taunton,  is  always  men- 
tioned with  respect  as  a  man  of  learning. 

Marmaduke  Matthews,  the  first  minister  of  Yarmouth, 
had  some  learning  but  was  weak  and  eccentric. 

Governor  Bradford,  and  Governor  Edward  Winslow, 
although  not  liberally  educated,  were  authors. 

Governor  Bradford  was  educated  to  husbandry,  and 
afterwards  (while  at  Leyden)  learned  the  trade  of  a  silk 
dyer :  yet  he  well  understood  the  Greek,  Latin,  and 
Hebrew  languages,  particularly  the  last.  His  prose  wri- 
tings are  above  mediocrity,  and  the  antiquarian  will  never 
cease  to  regret  the  loss  of  his  precious  manuscript  history 


316 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY, 


of  the  Plymouth  colony  from  its  commencement  to  the 
year  1646.  He  attempted  poetry,  but  the  muses  were 
woo'd  in  vain : — his  verses  are  prosaic,  rough, and  inelegant. 

Governor  Winslovv  was  one  of  the  best  writers  in  New 
England,  and  his  book  entitled  '  Good  News  from  New 
England,'  is  still  read  with  satisfaction. 

Samuel  Fuller  was  an  eminent  and  skilful  physician. 

The  '  New  England's  Memorial,'  by  Secretary  Morton, 
although  principally  a  compilation  from  Bradford's  history, 
is  still  a  standard  work,  and  has  passed  through  four  or 
five  editions. 

In  the  enumeration  of  the  writers  and  men  of  learning 
in  the  Plymouth  colony,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Newman  the 
first  minister  of  Rehoboth  deserves  a  place,  although  he 
did  not  come  into  the  colony  until  after  the  termination 
of  this  period  of  its  history.  He  arrived  in  New  England 
in  1638,  and  after  remaining  some  time  at  Dorchester, 
removed  to  Weymouth,  of  which  place  he  was  an  early 
minister,  and  from  there  he  removed  with  many  of  his 
society  to  Seekonk,  which  place  he  called  Rehoboth.  He 
was  educated  at  the  university  of  Oxford  and  had  been  a 
minister  of  the  established  church  in  England.  He  was 
a  man  of  great  learning  and  an  indefatigable  student. 
His  great  work  the  concordance  of  the  Bible,  (the  basis  of 
the  celebrated  Cambridge  concordance,  printed  in  Eng- 
land,) was  completed  at  Rehoboth,  and  so  intent  was  this 
learned  and  pious  man  upon  this  work,  that  being  destitute 
of  other  lights,  he  wrote  in  the  evenings  by  the  light  of 
pine  knots. 

William  Morell,  the  Episcopalian  clergyman  of  Gorges' 
settlement  at  Wessagusset,  (afterwards  Weymouth,)  as 
early  as  1623,  wrote  a  poem  on  New  England,  in  classical 
and  elegant  Latin. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  3^7 

Mr  Cushman's  essay  or  sermon  on  Divine  Love,  is  a 
work  of  uncommon  merit.  Although  Mr  Robinson  never 
came  to  America,  yet  he  deserves  mention  amongst  the 
writers  of  the  Plymouth  colony.  He  was  a  man  of  un- 
common argumentative  powers,  and  maintained  a  contro- 
versy on  doctrines  with  great  ability  against  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  and  learned  professors  of  the  university 
of  Leyden.  His  farewell  sermon  is  an  evidence  not  only 
of  his  ability,  but  of  a  liberality  far  transcending  the 
bigotry  of  the  age  and  would  do  no  discredit  to  these  times. 

Brewster,  a  man  of  no  pretensions,  but  a  good  scholar, 
was  well  versed  in  the  ancient  languages,  and  was  edu- 
cated at  one  of  the  English  Universities. 

Governor  Prence,  although  illiterate  himself,  cherished  a 
deep  respect  for  learning  and  learned  men. 

In  Massachusetts,  Wilson,  the  grand  nephew  of  Grindal, 
archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  first  pastor  of  the  Boston 
church  ; —  Cotton,  the  first  teacher  of  the  same  church  ; — 
Higginson,  the  first  teacher  at  Salem  ;  —  Hugh  Peters,  the 
second  pastor  of  Salem  ;  —  John  Eliot,  the  first  teacher  of 
the  church  at  Roxbury  ;  —  Hooker,  the  first  pastor  of  the 
churches  at  Cambridge  and  Hartford  in  Connecticut,  and 
the  founder  of  Hartford  ;  —  Sherman,  an  early  minister  at 
Watertown  ;  —  Bulkley,  the  first  minister  of  Concord;  — 
Allen,  an  early  minister  of  Charlestown  ; — Nathaniel  Ro- 
gers, the  first  pastor  of  the  church  at  Ipswich  ; — Symmes, 
another  pastor  of  Charlestown  ;  —  Nathaniel  Ward,  author 
of  the  Simple  Cobbler  of  Agawam  and  a  pastor  of  the 
church  at  Ipswich,  had  all  been  educated  at  the  English 
university  at  Cambridge.  Some  of  them  had  been  fellows 
and  professors,  and  nearly  all,  ministers  of  the  established 
church. 

Richard    Mather   an    early    minister     of   Dorchester, 
Thomas  Cobbet  another  pastor  of  the  church  in  Ipswich, 


318  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

and  John  Davenport  the  first  minister  of  New  Haven,  and 
afterwards  the  successor  of  Norton  at  Boston,  bad  all  been 
educated  at  the  University  of  Oxford. 

Skelton,  the  first  pastor  of  the  Salem  church,  had  been 
a  clergyman  of  the  established  church  in  Lincolnshire. 
Mr  Weld  of  Roxbury,  and  George  Phillips  the  first  pastor 
of  the  church  at  Watertown,  had  also  been  clergymen  of 
the  established  church  in  England. 

Thomas  Parker  the  first  pastor  of  the  Newbury  church, 
had  been  educated  at  Dublin  under  the  care  of  Archbishop 
Usher.  He  spoke  Greek,  Latin,  and  Hebrew,  as  familiar- 
ly as  English.  James  Noyes,  the  first  teacher  of  that 
church  ;  —  John  Allen  the  first  minister  of  Dedham,  and 
William  Thompson  the  minister  of  Braintree,  were  all 
excellent  scholars.  Ezekiel  Rogers  the  first  pastor  of 
the  church  at  Rowley,  was  a  man  of  considerable  learning. 

Ezekiel  Cheever  a  schoolmaster  in  Boston,  was  a  dis- 
tinguished Latin  scholar. 

Theophilus  Eaton  the  first  governor  of  New  Haven,  al- 
though a  merchant,  was  a  good  scholar. 

Giles  Firmin  the  ejected  minister  of  Stratford,  (in  Eng- 
land,) was  educated  at  Cambridge,  and  was  eminent  for  his 
learning.  In  New  England,  he  was  known  as  a  consum- 
mate physician,  but  held  no  ministerial  office. 

John  Fisk  also,  a  physician  and  a  preacher,  was  edu- 
cated at  Emanuel  College,  (Cambridge,)  and  ejected 
from  his  living  in  England. 

Edward  Norris,  who  preceded  Hugh  Peters  at  Salem, 
was  a  political  writer  of  great  celebrity. 

William  Torrey  of  Weymouth,  was  a  distinguished 
scholar  and  an  author. 

William  Pynchon  the  founder  both  of  Roxbury  and 
Springfield,  was  a  man  of  extraordinary  learning. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  3  j  9 

To  these  may  be.  added  John  Winthrop  the  governor 
of  Massachusetts,  an  able  lawyer  and  jurist,  and  as  a  wri- 
ter far  above  mediocrity.  Sir  Henry  Vane,  although  a 
fanatic,  was  a  man  of  learning,  and  fond  of  learning. 

John  Winthrop,  jun.  an  early  governor  of  Connecticut, 
was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Royal  Society,  and  one  of 
the  first  philosophers  of  the  age  : — he  was  the  friend  and 
correspondent  of  Boyle  and  Bishop  Wilkins. 

To  this  catalogue  may  be  added  the  names  of  several 
others. 

The  period  during  which  these  illustrious  men  flourish- 
ed, extends  from  1620  to  1640.  Plymouth  had  been  set- 
tled twenty  years,  Massachusetts  eleven,  and  New  Haven 
and  Connecticut  two  or  three.  The  whole  population  of 
these  colonies  in  1640,  probably  did  not  exceed  6  or  SOOO 
souls.  Yet,  where  in  an  equal  promiscuous  population,  at 
that  period,  could  have  been  found  so  many  men,  distin- 
guished for  literature  and  of  learned  educations.''  It  is  true 
that  their  writings  and  teachings  were  generally  on  subjects 
of  polemic  divinity,  but  amongst  them  were  those  who  had 
attended  to  the  sciences,  sound  mathematicians,  astrono- 
mers and  learned  physicians.  Their  poetry  partook  of  the 
faults  of  the  age,  the  faults  of  Cowley  and  all  that  class  of 
poets  denominated  by  Dr  Johnson,  metaphysical  ;  it  was 
harsh,  quaint,  full  of  conceits,  allegorical  and  pedantic ;  but 
it  must  be  recollected  that  this  was  at  a  period  long  before 
the  era  of  Dryden  and  Pope,  who,  first  taught  their  coun- 
trymen the  art  of  harmonizing  English  verse.  Dramatic 
poetry  which  alone  redeems  the  taste  of  the  English  na- 
tion at  that  period,  was  held  in  utter  abomination  by  the 
puritans;  and  that  delightful  department  which  fictitious 
works  in  prose  have  now  naturalized  in  English  literature, 
had  not  been  explored  or  even  dreamed  of.  The  style 
of  historical  writing  was  equal  to  the  home  standard. 


320  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

As  classical  scholars,  our  pilgrim  fathers  have  found  no 
rivals  amongst  us,  even  in  modern  times  :  —  they  were  fa- 
miliar with  the  Latin  and  Greek,  and  all  the  clergy  wrote 
those  languages  with  ease  and  elegance  and  spoke  them 
fluently,  and  in  the  Hebrew  they  were  profound  critics. 

In  controversial  divinity,  logic,  and  metaphysics,  they 
were  unrivalled,  and  it  is  to  be  lamented  that  such  pro- 
digious intellectual  powers  were  wasted  in  the  discussion 
of  some  mystic  point  in  theology,  now  uninteresting,  and 
always  unimportant. 

Upon  the  whole,  when  we  compare  our  classical 
acquirements  with  those  of  our  forefathers,  we  have  no 
reason  to  be  proud.  Few  can  be  found  at  this  day  in  this 
great  nation,  who  are  the  equals  of  Chauncy,  Wilson, 
Cotton,  Hooker,  Bulkley,  Parker,  Lothrop,  Norton,  or 
Rogers. 

Devoted  as  these  great  men  were  to  the  cause  of  learn- 
ing, there  was  one  benefactor  to  that  cause  deserving  of 
more  gratitude  than  either,  and  he  was  John  Harvard  an 
early  minister  of  Charlestown,  who  by  bequeathing  in  his 
will  nearly  £800  to  found  a  college,  established  that  ven- 
erable university  which  now  perpetuates  his  name. 

CONCLUSION. 

At  this  period  it  seems  proper  to  terminate  the  first  part 
of  the  history  of  Plymouth.  It  had  now  been  a  colony 
twenty  years.  The  settlers  had  overcome  the  first  difficul- 
ties ; —  their  disputes  with  the  natives  had  been  settled, 
and  the  relations  of  peace  permanently  established  by  the 
renewal  of  the  treaty  with  Massasoiet  and  his  son  ;  —  they 
had  acquired  considerable  territory  without  exciting  the 
jealousy  of  their  Indian  neighbors,  as  there  was  yet  enough 
for  both  races.     Eight  churches  had  been  gathered,  and 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  321 

eight  towns  had  been  incorporated.  The  settlement  of 
the  interior  had  been  commenced.  More  fortunate  than 
Massachusetts,  they  had  been  undisturbed  with  sectarian 
disputes,  and  wiser,  they  exercised  a  liberal  toleration, 
which  increased  their  numbers,  while  the  sterner  temper 
of  their  neighbors  could  only  be  soothed  by  the  banish- 
ment of  their  antagonists.  Their  fundamental  or  consti- 
tutional laws  had  been  established,  and  their  government 
defined.  Their  morals  were  pure.  Their  ministers  and 
teachers  learned  and  pious.  The  climate  had  been  proved 
to  be  good  by  a  succession  of  healthful  years.  The  qual- 
ities of  the  soil  were  understood,  and  the  peculiarities  of  the 
seasons  having  been  ascertained,  they  knew  when  to  plant, 
and  when  to  gather.  Attachments  were  formed  by  long 
residence,  and  many  were  growing  to  manhood  who  knew 
no  other  country.  They  were  industrious,  active,  enterpri- 
sing, and  successful.  They  cultivated  their  commercial 
capacities  with  assiduity,  and  were  acquiring  competence 
if  not  wealth.  To  add  to  their  security,  the  colonies  of 
Massachusetts,  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut, 
and  New  Haven,  surrounding  them  in  all  directions,  were 
permanently  established,  and  were  increasing  in  numbers 
and  strength. 


THE    END    OF    THE    FIRST    FART. 


NOTICE. 

The  author  living  at  some  distance  from  the  printer,  was  frequently  obliged 
to  correct  the  proof  sheets  of  this  work  very  hastily,  and  some  errors  have 
crept  into  the  text,  the  most  important  of  which  are  contained  in  the  following 
list  of 

ERRATA. 

Page  11,  4th  line  from  the  bottom,  after  '  however,'  in  the  parenthesis  insert  he. 

"     19,  3d  line  from  the  bottom,  yrayer  instead  of  '  prayers,'  followed  by  a 
colon. 

*'    25,  line  12th  from  bottom,  adventurous  instead  of  '  adventurers.' 

"     (A  name).     Briteridge  instead  of  '  Butteridge,'  and  in  other  places. 

"     48,  7th  line  from  top,  for  '  a '  read  at. 

*'  58,  17th,  18th,  and  19th  lines  from  top,  instead  of  '  after  they  had  made  an 
ineffectual  discharge  of  their  arrows,  those  of  the  English  who  had,'  read 
which  was  followed  by  an  ineffectual  discharge  of  arrows  •  such  of  the  English 
as  had. 

Same  page,  line  24th,  after  '  but,'  insert  the  English;  line  25th  dele  they. 
Page  61,  line  12th  from  the  bottom,  dele  and. 

"    63,  Note  at  the  bottom,  instead  of  'its,'  read  their. 

"     101,  line  4th  from  the  top,  instead  of  '  They,'  read  These  English. 

"     223,     line  9th  from  bottom,  after  '  Williams,'  insert  with. 

"     267,  top  line,  dele  '  between  him  and,'  and  insert  with. 

"     271,  last  line  of  the  text  but  one,  instead  of  '  jurisdictions,'  read  juris- 
diction. 

"    277,  lines  9th  and  10th,  dele  '  now  was.' 


HISTORICAL    MEMOIR 


OF   THE   COLONY   OF 


NEW     PLYMOUTH 


PART    II. 


FROM    1641    TO    1G75. 


BY     FRANCIS    BAYLIES. 


PREFACE. 


That  period  in  the  history  of  New  Plymouth  commencing 
with  the  year  1641,  and  terminating  with  the  commencement  of 
the  great  Indian  war  in  June  1675.  embracing  more  than  thirty- 
four  years,  although  not  entirely  barren  of  incident,  presents 
but  few  events  of  any  extraordinary  interest. 

It  was  a  period  of  profound  peace.  The  form  and  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  government  were  settled.  The  laws  of  immediate 
and  pressing  necessity  had  been  established.  The  turbulent 
and  factious  had  been  driven  from  the  colony,  or  had  voluntarily 
left  it.  Fanaticism  and  intolerance,  which  hung  like  a  dark 
cloud  over  Massachusetts,  scarcely  shaded  Plymouth.  The 
Quakers,  it  is  true,  disturbed  the  tranquillity  of  the  latter  colony 
in  some  degree,  for  although,  in  modern  times,  they  are  peace- 
ful, patient,  and  quiet,  they  then  felt  the  zeal  of  new  converts 
for  new  creeds,  and  they  were  determined  that  their  light  '  should 
be  comprehended  by  the  darkness,'  and  their  instructions  were 
more  often  given  in  the  language  of  reproach  and  denunciation, 
than  in  the  milder  language  of  persuasion  :  this  led  to  some 
severe  laws,  and  some  of  the  best  men  in  the  colony  lost  the 
popular  confidence,  because  their  wisdom  was  in  advance  of  the 
wisdom  of  the  age,  and  they  had  become  sufficiently  enlightened 


Vi  PREFACE. 

to  perceive  that  persecution  was  not  the  most  effectual  mode  of 
combating  and  correcting  erroneous  opinions.  The  Baptists 
have  made  some  complaints  of  the  intolerance  which  prevailed 
at  this  period,  yet  the  candid  of  that  sect  must  admit  that  the 
proceedings  against  Obadiah  Holmes  were  induced  rather  by 
his  manners,  deportment,  and  riotous  conduct,  than  from  any 
design  on  the  part  of  the  court  to  compel  a  renunciation  of 
obnoxious  opinions.  Mr  Myles,  the  respectable  Anabaptist  min- 
ister of  Swansey,  was  scarcely  molested,  and  the  Anabaptist 
principles  of  Dr  Chauncy,  the  second  president  of  Harvard 
College,  were  no  obstacle  to  his  settlement  as  the  pastor  of  the 
church  of  Scituate,  and  would  have  been  none  to  his  settlement 
at  Plymouth,  for  which  the  people  were  anxious. 

During  this  period,  the  settlements  already  established  con- 
tinued to  thrive,  and  new  settlements  were  commenced.  The 
court  was  sparing  in  legislation,  but  new  laws  were  made  when 
the  necessity  which  required  them,  was  apparent.  A  new- 
political  relation  was  effected  with  the  sister  colonies  of  Massa- 
chusetts, Connecticut,  and  New  Haven  in  1643,  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  confederation,  whose  principal  objects  were,  the 
satisfactory  adjustment  of  such  disputes  as  should  arise  between 
the  colonies,  and  a  provision  for  the  common  defence  propor- 
tionate to  the  ability  of  each  colony.  The  embryo  congress  of 
America,  consisting  of  eight  members,  assembled  annually  and 
alternately  in  each  colony. 

For  greater  convenience,  the  history  of  this- period  lias  been 
consolidated  in  four  general  chapters. 

The  first  comprises  the  miscellaneous  transactions  of  the 
colony. 

The  second,  a  brief  abstract  of  the  general  laws. 


PREFACE.  vii 

The  third,  a  narrative  of  the  more  important  proceedings  of 
the  commissioners  of  the  confederated  colonies,  particularly  such 
as  especially  relate  to  the  colony  of  Plymouth. 

The  fourth,  a  general,  and  in  some  instances  a  particular  his- 
tory of  the  towns. 

For  the  history  of  this  period  but  few  authorities  have  been 
consulted,  as  but  few  exist :  the  work  of  Secretary  Morton  ter- 
minates in  1668. 

The  collections  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Massachusetts 
have  been  consulted,  with  a  view  more  particularly  to  the  history 
of  some  of  the  ancient  towns,  and  also  the  ancient  records  of  the 
towns,  and  of  the  colony,  and  Hazard's  collection  of  state  papers. 

With  respect  to  the  memoirs  of  the  towns,  different  objections 
may  be  taken.  Some  may  be  supposed  to  be  too  meagre ; 
others,  too  redundant  and  minute,  containing  much  matter  of 
little  interest.  As  to  the  first,  the  author  can  only  say  that^  he 
used  such  materials  as  he  had,  and  regretted  that  no  more  could 
be  obtained.  As  to  the  last, — it  appeared  to  him  that  a  minute 
and  faithful  relation  of  the  transactions  of  those  small  and  almost 
independent  communities  was  indispensable,  to  enable  the  reader 
truly  to  understand  the  character  of  the  people  whose  history 
he  was  compiling,  as  each,  in  some  degree,  impressed  its  own 
peculiar  traits  upon  the  general  mass  until  that  mass  became 
homogeneous,  and  this  individual  delineation  was  therefore  im- 
portant to  the  principal  end  of  the  work.  There  was  certainly 
a  wide  difference  between  the  humble  Brownists  of  Leyden,  ex- 
pelled like  felons  from  the  mansion  of  a  proud  and  angry  parent, 
bearing  the  infliction  with  meekness  and  continuing  to  feel  as 
children  feel,  and  the  stern  Puritans  of  England  defying  the 
crown  and  scorning  the  mitre  ;   or  between  the  shipwrights  of 


vlii  PREFACE. 

Kent  and  the  Baptists  of  Wales  ;  or  between  the  merchants  of 
London  and  Boston,  and  the  native  English  of  the  country,  born 
in  its  forests,  whose  characters,  modified  by  the  circumstances 
of  situation  and  nativity,  presented  new  and  peculiar  traits.  A 
remark  of  Governor  Hutchinson  is  not  unapplicable  ;  after  a  brief 
account  of  the  Pilgrims,  he  says,  '  These  were  the  founders  of 
New  Plymouth.  The  settlement  of  this  colony  occasioned  the 
settlement  of  Massachusetts,  which  was  the  source  of  the  other 
colonies  of  New  England.  Virginia  was  in  a  dying  state,  and 
seemed  to  revive  and  flourish  from  the  example  of  New  England. 
I  am  not  preserving  from  oblivion  the  names  of  heroes,  whose 
chief  merit  is  the  overthrow  of  cities,  provinces,  and  empires, 
but  the  names  of  the  founders  of  a  flourishing  town  and  colony, 
if  not  of  the  whole  British  empire  in  America.' 

Lightly  should  we  estimate  the  curiosity,  or  the  enterprise, 
or  the  understanding  of  that  traveller,  who,  within  reach  of  the 
fountains,  which  originate  the  Nile,  the  Niger,  the  Ganges,  or  the 
Mississippi,  should  fail  to  visit  them,  or  to  learn  and  describe 
their  peculiarities  ; — however  difl^erent  their  qualities,  when  their 
waters  are  blended,  they  impart  to  their  mighty  offspring  an 
eternal  individuality  of  character. 

An  objection  may,  with  more  propriety,  be  made  against  the 
insertion  of  the  laws,  as  it  is  contrary  to  usage.  If  the  historian 
of  Massachusetts,  living  at  a  time  when  the  history  of  Plymouth 
was  fresh  in  the  memories  of  the  aged,  and  being  himself  the 
chief  justice  of  the  province  in  which  that  colony  was  included, 
whose  duty  it  was  to  trace  the  streams  of  provincial  law  to  their 
colonial  fountains,  and  withal  a  jurist  of  great  industry  and  re- 
search, could  assert  that  '  Plymouth  never  established  any  distinct 
code  or  body  of  laws,'  as  Governor  Hutchinson  distinctly  does, 


PREFACE.  ix 

it  is  certainly  the  duty  of  tlie  historian  of  Plymouth  to  correct 
the  error.  It  is  not  very  surprising  that  Hutchinson  fell  into  this 
mistake,  as  there  was  not  a  single  copy  of  the  printed  laws 
extant,  even  in  his  time.  These  laws  will  occupy  but  a  small 
space  in  the  volume,  and  the  author  trusts  he  may  be  excused 
for  attempting,  in  this  way,  to  preserve  some  invaluable  relics  of 
a  former  age,  existing  now  only  in  manuscript,  subject  to  all  the 
accidents,  which  time  brings  forth,  and  liable  every  day  to  de- 
struction. 

.Another  objection  may,  perhaps,  be  made,  as  to  the  amplifi- 
cation of  the  history  of  the  churches  and  the  biography  of  the 
ministers.  Ft  must  be  recollected  that  Plymouth,  as  well  as 
Massachusetts,  vi^as  settled  by  churches,  as  such,  and  in  such 
communities  the  minister  or  pastor  is,  of  course,  the  chief  per- 
sonage. 


HISTORICAL  MEMOIR 


OF 


PLYMOUTH    COLONY. 


PART    II. 


CHAP.  I. 

MISCELLANEOUS  TRANSACTIONS  OF  THE  COLONY 

FROM    1641    TO    JUNE,    1675. 

In  each  of  the  years  1641,  1642,  and  1643,  William 
Bradford  was  elected  governor.  In  the  same  years, 
Edward  Winslow,  Thomas  Prince,  William  Collier, 
Timothy  Hatherly,  John  Brown,  and  Edmund  Freeman, 
were  elected  Assistants.  In  1641,  Capt.  Miles  Standish 
was  an  assistant,  and  in  1642  and  1643,  his  place  was 
supplied  by  William  Thomas. 

During  these  years,  John  Atwood  and  William  Paddy 
were  deputies  from  Plymouth.  In  1641,  John  Jenney  and 
John  Rowland,  whose  places  in  1642  and  1643,  were 
supplied  by  John  Doane  and  John  Cooke. 

In  1641  and  1642,  Jonathan  Brewster  and  John  Alden 
were  deputies  from  Du.xbury. 

In  1643,  Thomas  Besbeech  and  William  Basset. 

PART    II.  1 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

In  these  years,  Edward  Eddendon  was  a  deputy  from 
Scituate. 

In  1641,  Humphrey  Turner;  in  1642,  George  Ken- 
rick;  and  in  1643,  Thomas  Chambers. 

John  Strong  represented  Taunton  in  each  year. 

In  1641,  Capt.  William  Poole;  in  1642,  John  Parker; 
and  in  1643,  Henry  Andrews. 

Sandwich  in  1641,  was  represented  by  Richard  Bourne 
and  George  Allen. 

In  June,  1642,  Mr  Bourne  was  again  a  deputy,  and 
William  Newland. 

In  December,  1642,  Thomas  Burgess  and  John  Allen. 

In  1643,  Mr  Newland  again,  and  Henry  Feake. 

In  1641  and  1642,  Thomas  Dimmack  represented  Barn- 
stable. 

In  1641,  William  Thomas,  who  was  elected  an  assist- 
ant in  1642,  and  his  place  in  that  year  was  supplied  by 
Anthony  Annable,  who  was  re-elected  in  1643,  with  John 
Cooper. 

Yarmouth  sent  during  these  three  years,  John  Crow. 

In  1641  and  1642,  Richard  Hoar  ;  and  in  1643,  Anthony 
Thacher. 

In  1642,  Marshfield  was  represented  for  the  first  time 
by  Thomas  Bourne  and  Kenelm  Winslow  ;  and  in  1643 
by  Josias  Winslow. 

In  1641,  some  controversy  arose  between  Plymouth  and 
Massachusetts  respecting  the  territory  of  Seekonk,  (after- 
wards Rehoboth,)  where  some  of  the  people  of  Massa- 
chusetts had  commenced  a  settlement,  and  a  copy  of  the 
Plymouth  patent  was  required  by  Massachusetts,  which 
being  produced,  pacified  Massachusetts,  although  it  was 
not  entirely  satisfactory. 

In  consequence  of  an  apprehension  of  Indian  hostility,  a 
certain  proportion  of  the  people  were  required  to  attend 
public  worship  on  each  Lord's  day  complete  in  arms. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  3 

The  courts  of  election  had  at  first  been  holden  in 
"'  the  month  of  January,  annually  :  afterwards  in 
March  ;  but  the  roads  being  frequently  obstructed,  it  was 
enacted  that  the  court  of  election  be  holden  on  the  first 
Tuesday  of  June  annually,  and  the  other  General  Courts 
on  the  first  Tuesday  of  October  and  March,  and  the 
Court  of  Assistants  on  tl;e  first  Tuesday  of  August,  De- 
cember, February,  and  May. 

In  1643,  thirty  men  were  raised  with  a  view  to  an  ex- 
pedition against  the  natives,  from  whom  hostilities  were 
apprehended.* 

In  1644,  Edward  Winslow  was  elected  governor,  and 
Governor  Bradford  supplied  his  place  at  the  board  of 
assistants  ;  the  other  assistants  were  all  re-elected,  as 
were  the  deputies  from  Plymouth,  Sandwich,  and  Taun- 
ton. Duxbury  elected  William  Bassett  again,  and  Edmund 
Chandler.  Scituate,  George  Kenrick,  and  John  Williams. 
Barnstable,  Henry  Hawley  and  Henry  Bourne.  Yarmouth, 
William  Palmer  and  Thomas  Falland.  Marshfield,  Ken- 
elm  Winslow  and  Robert  Waterman. 

John  Atwood,  a  man  of  exemplary  piety,  who  had  been  Death  of 
one  of  the  assistants,  and  also  a  deputy  from  Plymouth,  ^^l^'),,,,]. 
died  in  the  course  of  this  year.    He  came  into  the  colony 
subsequent  to  1633. 

About  this  time  a  serious  design  was  entertained  amongst 
many  of  the  settlers  of  the  town  of  Plymouth,  of  abandon- 
ing that  settlement.  The  soil  was  so  barren  that  it 
scarcely  repaid  the  expense  of  cultivation,  and  the  com- 
mercial capacities  of  the  place  had  not  as  yet  been  fully 
developed,  but  by  a  singular  mistake  they  purchased  a 
tract  of  land   of  the  Nauset  Indians,  and   established  a 


*  This  force  was  raised  in  the  following  proportions,  which  shews  the  relative 
strength  of  the  towns  at  that  time. — Plymouth,  7;  Duxbury,  5;  Scituate,  5; 
Taunton,  3;  Sandwich,  3;  Barnstable,  3  ;  Yarmouth,  2;  Marshfield,  2. 


4  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

town  on  the  easterly  part  of  Cape  Cod,  to  which  they  gave 
the  name  of  Eastham,  where  they  would  have  been  sub- 
jected to  similar  but  greater  inconveniences  than  those 
which  they  underwent  at  Plymouth.  This  injudicious 
location  saved  Plymouth  from  desertion.  The  settlers  of 
Plymouth  would  have  been  seated  in  the  midst  of  Indians, 
on  a  soil  more  barren  than  that  which  they  left,  with  a 
worse  harbor,  fewer  conveniences  for  commerce,  and  more 
exposed  to  the  attacks  of  European  enemies  ;  farther  from 
their  resources,  and  at  some  distance  from  the  other  set- 
tlements, with  a  wilderness  intervening.  The  project  was 
eventually  abandoned  by  the  body,  but  adopted  by  indi- 
viduals to  whom  the  church  relinquished  their  rights. 
Death  and  0^  the  I6th  of  Apiil,  1644,  at  the  advanced  age  of 
of'srew-  eightyfour,  died  William  Brewster,  the  ruling  elder.  The 
ster.  place  of  his   birth   is  not   ascertained.     He   was   born  in 

the  year  1560,  and  was  educated  at  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge. Remarkable  for  his  devotion  and  piety  while  at 
the  university,  he  was  one  of  the  first  to  feel  the  new 
impulse  of  that  mighty  spirit,  which,  having  already 
effected  one  religious  revolution  in  England,  was  sweep- 
ing on,  with  accelerated  force,  to  produce  another. 

He  left  the  university  to  engage  in  the  service  of  Da- 
vison, a  celebrated  statesman  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  and 
her  ambassador  both  at  Scotland  and  Holland.  With 
Davison  he  lived  on  terms  of  the  most  intimate  and  familiar 
friendship,  and  through  his  influence  he  was  appointed  in 
behalf  of  the  queen  to  receive  the  possession  of  Flushing 
when  it  was  surrendered  to  her  ;  so  acceptable  was  his 
conduct  on  this  occasion,  that  the  States  of  Holland  pre- 
sented him  with  a  gold  chain. 

When  Davison  was  disgraced  and  reduced  to  poverty, 
the  conduct  of  Brewster  forms  a  remarkable  exception, 
and  exhibits  a  striking  contrast  to  the  ordinary  course  of 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

*  practised  politicians.'  He  did  not  desert  his  benefactor, 
but  his  fidelity  to  the  powerless  statesman  remained  un- 
shaken, as  firm  and  as  efficient  in  the  wane  of  his  fortune 
as  it  had  been  in  the  noontide  of  his  prosperity. 

Brewster  afterwards  retired  to  the  north  of  England 
and  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  the  scriptures  and 
the  practises  of  religion.  Becoming  dissatisfied  with  the 
existing  ecclesiastical  establishment,  he  was  one  of  the 
first  who  withdrew  from  the  national  and  formed  a  sepa- 
rate church,  of  which  Mr  Clifton  and  Mr  Robinson  were 
the  pastors.  Possessed  of  a  large  estate,  his  house  was 
always  open  to  his  religious  friends,  and  there  they  held 
their  worship.  His  purse  and  his  services  were  equally 
at  their  command.  He  shared  their  imprisonment  at 
Boston  when  they  were  arrested  for  attempting  to  escape 
to  Holland,  and  was  fined  more  heavily  than  the  others  by 
reason  of  his  superior  estate. 

After  his  removal  to  Holland  he  soon  began  to  expe- 
rience the  same  distress  from  which  he  had  been  so  instru- 
mental in  relieving  others  ;  his  fortune  was  exhausted,  and 
his  education  having  been  altogether  literary  and  political, 
he  was  not  qualified  for  mechanical  or  laborious  employ- 
ments ;  his  family  was  large,  and  dependants  numerous  ; 
he  felt  the  ills  of  poverty  and  dreaded  the  approach  of 
want.  Under  these  circumstances  he  became  a  teacher 
of  the  English  language,  and  by  means  of  the  Latin  with 
which  he  was  perfectly  familiar,  he  was  able  to  converse 
with  his  pupils.  He  also  set  up  a  printing  office,  and 
published  many  theological  tracts. 

He  was  chosen  the  ruling  elder  of  the  Leyden  Church, 
and  when  that  church  was  separated,  he  went  with  the 
minority  to  America. 

His  diffidence  of  his  qualifications  induced  him  steadily 
to  refuse  to  take  upon  himself  the  pastoral  office  which 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

the  people  were  anxious  he  should  assume,  but  in  all  the 
duties  which  his  new  situation  in  America  imposed  upon 
him,  he  was  prompt  and  energetic,  always  ready  to  assist  in 
the  political  councils,  and  in  the  conferences  of  the 
church,  and  to  share  the  common  dangers. 

With  the  most  submissive  patience  he  bore  the  novel  and 
trying  hardships  to  which  his  old  age  was  subjected,  lived 
abstemiously,  and  after  having  been  in  his  youth  the  com- 
panion of  ministers  of  state,  the  representative  of  his 
sovereign,  familiar  with  the  magnificence  of  courts,  and 
the  possessor  of  a  fortune  sufficient  not  only  for  the  com- 
forts but  the  elegancies  of  life,  this  humble  puritan  labored 
steadily  with  his  own  hands  in  the  fields  for  daily  sub- 
sistence. Yet  he  possessed  that  liappy  elasticity  of  mind 
which  could  accommodate  itself  with  cheerfulness  to  all 
circumstances  :  —  destitute  of  meat,  of  fish,  and  of  bread, 
over  his  simple  meal  of  clams,  would  he  return  thanks  to 
the  Lord  that  '  he  could  suck  of  the  abundance  of  the 
seas,  and  of  the  treasures  hid  in  the  sands.' 

His  preaching  was  sensible,  practical,  and  devout.  His 
manners  were  '  social  and  pleasant.'  His  cheerfulnes  was 
habitual  and  enduring,  and  when  the  occasion  required, 
he  could  call  up  from  their  depths,  those  lofty  and  heroic 
qualities  which  sustain  the  martyr  in  the  hour  of  peril  and 
trial.* 

*  Elder  Brewster  left  a  '  considerable'  library,  many  volumes  of  which 
were  in  the  learned  languages.  He  had  eight  children,  two  of  whom  were 
born  in  America.  His  two  eldest  daughters.  Patience  and  Fear,  did  not  airive 
until  1623.  The  first  married  Isaac  AHerton,  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
amongst  the  Pilgrims.     The  last  married  Governor  Prince. 

His  other  daughters  bore  the  names  of  Lucretia  and  Mary. 

His  sons  were  Love,  Wrestling,  Jonathan,  and  William. 

Jonathan  Brewster  was  frequently  a  deputy  from  Duxborough,  and  a  man 
much  respected.     WrestHng  and  William  died  before  their  father. 

There  are  now  many  descendants  from  this  venerable  pilgrim. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

In   1645,   Governor  Bradford  and    Governor  Winslow 
again  changed   places,  the  first  being   elected   Governor, 

The  following  character  of  Brewster,  written  (as  Judge  Davis  supposes,)  by 
secretary  Morton,  appears  in  the  records  of  the  first  church  in  Plymouth. 

'  After  he  had  attained  some  learning,  viz.  the  knowledge  of  the  Latin 
tongue,  with  some  Insight  in  the  Greek,  and  spent  some  small  time  at  Cam- 
bridge, and  then  being  first  seasoned  with  the  seeds  of  grace  and  virtue,  he 
went  to  the  court,  and  served  that  religious  and  godly  gentleman,  Mr  Davison, 
divers  years  when  he  was  Secretary  of  State ;  who  found  him  so  discreet  and 
faithful,  as  he  trusted  him  above  all  others  that  were  about  him,  and  only  em- 
ployed him  in  matters  of  greatest  trust  and  seciesy.  He  esteemed  him  rather 
as  a  son  than  a  servant;  and  for  his  wisdom  and  godliness  he  would  converse 
with  him  in  private  more  like  a  familiar  than  a  master.  He  attended  his  master 
when  he  was  sent  in  embassage  by  the  queen  into  the  Low  Countries,  (in  the 
Earl  of  Leicester's  time,)  as  for  other  weighty  afTiirs  of  State,  so  as  to  receive  pos- 
session of  the  cautionary  towns ;  and  in  token  thereof,  the  keys  of  Flushing  being 
delivered  to  him  in  her.  majesty's  name  ;  he  kept  them  some  time,  and  commit- 
ted them  to  his  servant,  who  kept  them  under  his  pillow  on  which  h^slept,  the 
first  night,  and  at  his  return  the  states  honored  him  with  a  gold  chain;  which 
his  master  committed  to  him,  and  commanded  him  to  wear  it  when  they  arrived 
in  England,  as  they  rode  through  the  country,  until  they  came  to  the  court. 
He  afterwards  remained  with  him  until  his  troubles,  when  he  was  put  from 
his  place,  about  the  death  of  the  queen  of  Scots,  and  some  good  time  after  ; 
doing  him  many  offices  of  service  in  the  time  of  his  troubles.  Afterwards,  he 
went  and  lived  in  the  country,  in  good  esteem  among  his  friends  and  the  good 
gentlemen  of  those  parts,  especially  the  godly  and  religious.  He  did  much 
good  in  the  country  where  he  lived,  in  promoting  and  furthering  religion,  not 
only  by  his  practice  and  example,  and  provoking  and  encouraging  others,  but 
by  procuring  good  preachers  for  the  places  thereabouts,  and  drawing  on  others 
to  assist  and  help  to  forward  in  such  a  work,  he  himself  most  commonly  deepest 
in  the  charge,  and  sometimes  above  his  abilities.  In  this  state  lie  continued 
many  years,  doing  the  best  good  he  could,  and  walking  according  to  the  light 
he  saw,  until  the  Lord  revealed  further  unto  him.  And,  in  the  end  by  the 
tyranny  of  the  Bishops  against  godly  preachers  and  people,  in  silencing  the 
one,  and  persecuting  the  other,  he,  with  many  more  of  those  times,  began  to 
look  further  into  particulars,  and  to  see  into  the  unlawfulness  of  their  callings, 
and  the  burthen  of  many  antichristian  corruptions,  which  both  he  and  they 
endeavored  to  cast  off,  as  they  also  did. 

'  After  they  were  joined  into  communion,  he  was  a  special  stay  and  help  to 
them.  They  ordinarily  met  at  his  house  on  the  Lord's  day,  which  was  within 
a  manor  of  the  Bishop's.  With  great  love  he  entertained  them  when  they 
came,  making  provision  for  them  to  his  great  charge ;  and  continued  so  to  do 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

and  the  last  first  assistant.  From  this  time  Bradford  was 
annually  elected  governor  until  his   death  in  1657.     The 

while  they  should  stay  in  England.  And  when  they  were  to  remove  out  of 
the  country,  he  was  one  of  the  first  in  all  adventures,  and  most  forward  ia 
any.  He  was  the  chief  of  those  that  were  taken  at  Boston,  in  Lincolnshire,  and 
suffered  the  greatest  loss  ;  and  one  of  the  seven  that  were  kept  longest  in 
prison,  and  after,  bound  over  to  the  assizes. 

'  After  he  came  into  Holland,  he  suffered  much  hardship,  after  he  had  spent 
the  most  of  his  means,  having  a  great  charge  and  many  children.  And,  in 
regard  to  his  former  breeding  and  course,  not  so  fit  for  many  employments  as 
others  were,  especially  such  as  were  toilsome  and  laborious.  Yea,  he  ever 
bore  his  condition  with  much  cheerfulness  and  content.  Towards  the  latter 
part  of  those  twelve  years  spent  in  Holland,  his  outward  condition  was  mended, 
and  he  lived  well  and  plentiful  ;  for  he  fell  into  a  way,  by  reason  he  had  the 
Latin  tongue,  to  teach  many  students,  who  had  a  desire  to  learn  the  English 
tongue,  to  teach  them  English  ;  and  by  his  method  they  quickly  attained  it,  with 
great  facility :  for  he  drew  rules  to  learn  it  by,  after  the  Latin  manner;  and  many 
gentlemen,* both  Danes  and  Germans,  resorted  to  him,  as  they  had  time,  from 
their  other  studies,  some  of  them  being  great  men's  sons.  He  also  had  means 
to  set  up  printing,  (by  the  help  of  some  friends,)  and  so  had  employment 
enough ;  and  by  reason  of  many  books,  which  would  not  be  allowed  to  be 
printed  in  England,  they  might  have  had  more  than  they  could  do. 

*  But  now  removing  into  this  country,  all  these  things  were  laid  aside  again, 
and  a  new  course  of  living  must  be  framed  unto ;  in  which  he  was  no  way 
unwilling  to  take  his  part,  and  to  bear  his  burden  with  the  rest ;  living  many 
times  without  bread  or  corn,  many  months  together  ;  having  many  times  noth- 
ing but  fish,  and  often  wanting  that  also  ;  and  drank  nothing  but  water  for  many 
years  together,  until  five  or  six  years  of  his  death  ;  and  yet  he  lived,  by  the 
blessing  of  God,  in  health,  until  very  old  age.  And  besides  that,  he  would 
labor  with  his  hands  in  the  fields  as  long  as  he  was  able.  Yet  when  the  church 
had  no  other  minister,  he  taught  twice  every  Sabbath,  and  that  both  powerfully 
and  profitably,  to  the  great  contentment  of  the  hearers,  and  their  comfortable 
edification.  Yea,  many  were  brought  to  God  by  his  ministry.  He  did  more  in 
this  behalf  in  a  year,  than  many  who  have  their  hundreds  a  year  do  in  all  their 
lives.  For  his  peisonal  abilities  he  was  qualified  above  many.  He  was  wise 
and  discreet,  and  well  spoken,  having  a  grave,  deliberate  utterance  ;  of  a  very 
cheerful  spirit ;  very  sociable  and  pleasant  amongst  his  friends  ;  of  an  humble 
and  modest  mind ;  of  a  peaceable  disposition  ;  undervaluing  himself  and  his 
own  abilities  ;  and  sometimes  overvaluing  others  ;  inoffensive  and  innocent  in 
his  life  and  conversation,  which  gained  him  the  love  of  those  without  as  well 
as  those  within.  Yet  he  would  tell  them  plainly  of  their  faults  and  evils,  both 
publicly  and  privately,  but  in  such  a  manner  as  usually  was  well  taken  from 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

assistants  were  all  reelected  with  the  exception  of  Mr 
Thomas,  who  was  succeeded  by  Capt.   Standish. 

Mr  Paddy  and  Mr  Cooke  were  reelected  deputies  from 
Plymouth,  with  Manasseh  Kempton  and  John  Dunham 
sen. ;  John  Alden  and  George  Soule  from  Duxbury  ;  Hum- 
phrey Turner  and  John  Hevves  from  Scituate  ;  William 
Cleveland  and  James  Skiff  from  Sandwich  ;  Henry  Cobb 
and  Thomas  Hinckley  from  Barnstable  ;  Anthony  Thacher 
and  Edmund  Hawes  from  Yarmouth  ;  Mr  Waterman  and 
Josias  Winslow  from  Marshfield.  Taunton  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  represented. 

It  is  said  by  Governor  Winthrop  that  the  government 
during  this  year,  sent  Mr  John  Brown  one  of  the  Magis- 
trates, to  Aquiday,  (Aquidneck,  Rhode    Island,)  to  forbid 

him.  He  was  tender  liearted,  and  compassionate  of  s'.ich  as  were  in  misery, 
but  especially  of  such  as  had  been  of  good  estate  and  rank,  and  were  fallen 
into  want  and  poverty,  either  for  goodness  and  religion's  sake,  or  by  the  injury 
and  oppression  of  others.  He  would  say  of  all  men,  these  deserved  to  be  most 
pitied.  And  none  did  more  offend  and  displease  him,  than  such  as  would 
haughtily  and  proudly  carry  and  lift  up  themselves,  being  risen  from  nothing, 
and  having  little  else  in  them  but  a  few  fine  clothes,  or  a  little  riches  more 
than  others. 

'  In  teaching  he  was  very  stirring,  moving  the  affections :  also  very  plain 
and  distinct  in  what  he  taught ;  by  which  means  he  became  the  more  profita- 
ble to  the  heareis.  He  had  a  singular  good  gift  in  prayer,  both  public  and 
private,  in  bringing  up  the  heart  and  conscience  before  God,  in  the  confession 
of  sin,  and  begging  the  mercies  of  God  in  Christ,  for  the  pardon  thereof.  He 
always  thought  it  were  better  for  ministers  to  pray  oftener,  and  divide  their 
prayers,  than  to  be  long  and  tedious  in  the  same,  except  upon  solemn  and 
special  occasions,  as  on  days  of  humiliation,  and  the  like.  His  reason  was, 
that  the  heart  and  spirits  of  all,  especially  the  weak,  could  not  stand  and  con- 
tinue bent,  as  it  were,  so  long  towards  God  as  they  ought  to  do,  in  that  duty, 
without  flagging  and  falling  off. 

'  For  the  government  of  the  church,  which  was  most  proper  to  his  office,  he 
was  careful  to  preseive  good  order  in  the  same  ;  and  to  preserve  purity  both  in 
the  doctrine  and  communion  in  the  same  ;  and  to  suppress  any  error  or  conten- 
tion that  might  begin  to  arise  among  them.  And  God  accordingly  gave  good 
success  to  his  endeavors  herein  all  his  days,  and  saw  the  fruit  of  his  labors  in 
that  behalf.' 

PART    II.  2 


10  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Mr  Williams  from  exercising  any  authority  there,  and 
laying  claim  to  the  island. 

After  their  cordial  consent  that  Mrs  Hutchinson  should 
make  her  settlement  there,  and  their  express  disclaimer  of 
any  jurisdiction,  it  seems  not  a  little  marvellous  that  such 
a  claim  should  have  been  set  up.  At  this  time  the  colony 
on  Rhode  Island  was  distracted  with  divisions  and  dissen- 
sions, and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  one  of  the  parties  might 
have  secretly  instigated  the  government  of  Plymouth  to 
advance  this  unfounded  pretension. 

In  1G4G,  the  assistants  were  all  reelected,  as  well  as 
the  deputies  from  Duxbury  and  Yarmouth.  In  Plymouth, 
John  Howland  supplied  the  place  of  Mr  Paddy,  the  other 
deputies  being  reelected  ;  Taunton  sent  William  Parker 
and  Richard  Williams  ;  Sandwich,  Richard  Bourne  and 
Thomas  Burgess  ;  Barnstable,  Anthony  Annable  and  Isaac 
Robinson ;  Marshfield,  William  Thomas  and  Thomas 
Bourne  ;  and  Rehoboth  was  represented  for  the  first  time 
by  Walter  Palmer.     No  names  appear  from  Scituate. 

Captain  Thomas  Cromwell  came  into  the  harbor  of  Ply- 
mouth with  several  rich  prizes,  which  he  had  taken  from 
the  Spaniards.  His  men  were  very  riotous  and  intempe- 
rate. One  of  them  having  insulted  him,  Cromwell  wrested 
his  rapier  from  him,  and  struck  him  on  the  head  with  the 
hilt  so  forcibly,  that  it  occasioned  his  death.  Cromwell 
was  tried  by  a  court  martial  or  council  of  war,  and  ac- 
quitted. 

Complaints  having  been  made  in  England  against  the 
colony,  by  Gorton,  and  more  serious  ones  against  Massa- 
chusetts, Edward  Winslow  went  over  again  as  agent,  and 
defended  the  colonies  with  much  ability.  Pymouth  fell 
under  no  censure,  but  a  letter  of  reproof  was  sent  to 
Massachusetts. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  1 1 

Governor  Winslovv,  late  a  victim  to  the  power  of  Arch- 
bishop Laud,  had  now  the  satisfaction  to  find  his  party 
in  power,  and  triumphant  over  the  king  and  the  church. 
Being  holden  in  great  estimation  by  the  ruling  statesmen, 
he  accepted  employment  there,  and  died  before  he  re- 
turned. 

In  1647,  no  change  was  made  in  the  Board  of  As- 
sistants except  by  the  election  of  William  Thomas  in 
the  place  of  Edmund  Freeman.  The  deputies  from  Yar- 
mouth were  reelected  ;  Rowland  and  Dunham  were  re- 
elected from  Plymouth,  with  Mr  Paddy  and  John  Hust ; 
John  Alden  was  reelected  from  Duxbury,  with  Constant 
Southworth  ;  Humphrey  Turner  and  John  Williams  were 
elected  in  Scituate ;  Mr  Annable  was  reelected,  and 
Mr  Cobb  elected  in  Barnstable  ;  Henry  Andrews  and 
Edward  Case  were  elected  in  Taunton  ;  Josias  Winslow 
and  Robert  Waterman  in  Marshfield  ;  William  Newland 
and  Thomas  Tupper  in  Sandwich  ;  Walter  Palmer  was 
reelected  and  Stephen  Paine  elected  in  Rehoboth  ;  and 
Nauset,  (Eastham,)  for  the  first  time  sent  Josias  Cooke 
and  Richard  Higginson. 

In  164S,  the  assistants  were  reelected.  Rowland,  Dun- 
ham, and  Paddy,  were  reelected  in  Plymouth,  and  Ma- 
nasseh  Kempton  was  elected  in  the  place  of  John  Hust. 
Alden  was  reelected  from  Duxbury  with  William  Bassett  j 
Tupper  was  reelected  from  Sandwich  with  Thomas  Bur- 
gess ;  Edward  Case  was  reelected  in  Taunton  with  Rich- 
ard W^illiams ;  Thomas  Dimmack  and  Thomas  Hinckley 
were  reelected  from  Barnstable  ;  Robert  Waterman  and 
Thomas  Chillingworth  were  chosen  in  Marshfield ;  in 
Rehoboth,  Robert  Titus  and  John  Doggett  ;  in  Eastham, 
Nicholas  Snow  and  Samuel  Hickes.  From  Scituate  none 
were  chosen,  but  John  Williams  and  Thomas  Chambers 
acted,  and  Lieutenant  Palmer  and  Edward  Hawes  acted 
for  Yarmouth. 


12  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

In  1649,  it  was  enacted,  'that  at  courts  of  election, 
after  the  choice  and  swearing  of  magistrates,  and  other 
officers  of  government,  the  general  occasions  of  the  court 
wherein  deputies  are  requisite,  be  attended,  except  extra- 
ordinary occasion  come  in  the  way.' 

The  assistants  were  reelected,  and  the  deputies  from 
Plymouth,  Duxbury,  and  Barnstable  ;  James  Cudworth 
and  Thomas  Clap  were  elected  in  Scituate  ;  John  Vin- 
cent and  William  Newland  in  Sandwich  ;  Case  was  re- 
elected in  Taunton  with  Henry  Andrews;  Lieutenant 
Palmer  and  Edward  Hawes  were  chosen  in  Yarmouth  ; 
Waterman  was  reelected  in  Marshfield  with  Kenelm  Wins- 
low  ;  Robert  Titus  in  Rehoboth  with  Stephen  Paine ; 
Samuel  Hickes  in  Eastham  with  John  Doane. 

The  death  of  Governor  Winthrop  threw  a  gloom  over 
all  the  New  England  settlements.  So  high  was  the  esti- 
mation in  which  this  excellent  gentleman  was  holden  in 
Plymouth,  that  his  advice  in  all  dubious  and  difficult 
questions  was  sought,  received  with  deference,  and  gene- 
rally adopted.  The  government  of  Plymouth  felt  the 
bereavement. 

Through  the  instrumentality  of  Governor  Winslow,  the 
English  Parliament  passed  an  act  for  promoting  and 
propagating  the  gospel  amongst  the  Indians  in  New 
England,  and  a  society  was  incorporated  for  the  purpose 
of  receiving  donations,  which  the  commissioners  of  the 
United  Colonies  were  authorized  to  appropriate  as  they 
saw  fit. 

In  this  year,  the  first  real  schism  in  religion  took  place 
in  Rehoboth,  in  the  congregation  of  Mr  Newman.  The 
schismatics  finally  became  Baptists;  some  particulars  of 
this  schism  are  given  in  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  Re- 
hoboth. 

In  1650,  the  assistants  were  again  elected,  and  the 
deputies  from  Marshfield  and  Rehoboth.      Plymouth  re- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  I3 

elected  only  three,  being  the  former  deputies,  with  the 
exception  of  Mr  Paddy ;  Duxbury  reelected  Constant 
Southworth  and  elected  George  Soule ;  Scituate  re- 
elected Mr  Cudworth,  and  elected  Humphrey  Turner  ; 
John  Vincent  was  reelected,  and  Thomas  Tupper  elected 
in  Sandwich  ;  in  Yarmouth,  Lieutenant  Palmer  was  re- 
elected and  Mr  Hoar  elected  ;  Richard  Williams  and 
Oliver  Purchase  were  chosen  in  Taunton  ;  Thomas  Dim- 
mack  was  reelected  in  Barnstable,  and  Anthony  Annable 
was  elected  ;  in  Eastham  John  Doane  was  reelected,  and 
Nicholas  Snow  was  elected. 

Thomas  Prince,  William   Colyer,  Thomas  ,  James 

Cudworth,  Josias  Winslow,  John  Dunham,  sen.,  George 
Soule,  and  Constant  Southworth,  having  been  previously 
appointed  a  committee  '  to  consider  the  proposition  pro- 
pounded by  ihe  deputies  to  the  court  held  at  Plymouth  in 
October,  1650,  concerning  the  right  of  the  majority  to 
order  adjournments  and  dissolutions  of  the  general  court, 
and  the  making  and  repealing  of  laws,'  reported,  that 
no  alteration  should  be  made  in  that  matter,  and  that  the 
magistrates  and  deputies  be  considered  one  body. 

Mr  William  Thomas  one  of  the  assistants,  died  in  1651.  r>eath  and 

character 

Secretary  Morton  says  01  him,  'that  he  was  a  well  ap-  of  wii- 
proved  and  well  grounded  Christian,  well  read  in  the  holy  Thomas, 
scriptures,  and  other  approved  authors,  and  a  good  lover 
and  approver  of  godly  ministers  and  good  Christians,  and 
one  that  had  a  sincere  desire  to  promote  the  common  good 
both  of  church  and  state  ;  he  died  of  consumption,  and 
was  honorably  buried  at  Marshfield.' 

Mr  Thomas  was  an  English  merchant,  and  one  of  the 
adventurers.  He  arrived  in  the  colony  about  the  year 
1630.  He  was  a  deputy  from  Barnstable  in  1641,  and 
afterwards  from  Marshfield,  and  an  assistant.* 

*  His  son  Nathaniel,  served  in  Pliilip's  war.  One  of  his  descendants,  Gen. 
John  Thomas,  commanded  the  American  forces  at  Roxbury,  at  the  commence- 


14  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

In  1651,  the  assistants  were  reelected  with  the  exception 
of  Edward  Winslovv,  who  was  in  England,  and  Mr  Thomas 
who  had  died.  Their  places  were  supplied  with  John 
Alden  and  Captain  Thomas  Willet. 

The  deputies  were  reelected  in  Taunton,  Duxbury, 
Scituate,  Sandwich  ;  Stephen  Paine  in  Relioboth,  with 
Richard  Bowen  ;  in  Plymouth,  Mr  Howland  and  Mr 
Kempton  were  reelected,  and  Thomas  Southworth  and 
Thomas  Clark  elected  ;  Anthony  Thacher  and  Edmund 
Hawes  were  chosen  in  Yarmouth  ;  Mr  Annable  was  re- 
elected, and  Isaac  Robinson  elected  in  Barnstable  ;  John 
Doane  and  Josiah  Cook  were  chosen  in  Eastham ;  In 
Marshfield,  Kenelm  Winslovv  and  Josias  Winslovv,  were 
chosen. 

In  1652,  all  the  assistants  were  reelected  excepting  Mr 
Collier,  who  was  succeeded  by  Captain  Thomas  South- 
worth  ;  John  Howland,  John  Winslow,  John  Dunham,  and 
Thomas  Southworth  were  elected  deputies  in  Plymouth  ; 
in  Duxbury,  Constant  Southworth  and  John  Bradford  ; 
in  Scituate,  James  Cudworth  and  Humphrey  Turner  ;  in 
Taunton,  Thomas  Gilbert  and  James  Wyat ;  in  Sandwich, 
Richard  Bourne  and  Thomas  Tupper ;  in  Barnstable, 
Henry  Cobb  and  Nathaniel  Bacon  ;  in  Yarmouth,  Anthony 
Thacher  and  Thomas  Hawes  ;  in  Marshfield,  Kenelm 
Winslow  and  Thomas  Chillingworth ;  in  Rehoboth, 
Thomas  Cooper  and  Stephen  Paine;  in  Eastham, "Nicho- 
las Snow  and  Daniel  Cole. 

In  December,  the  court  passed  the  following  order, 
'  Whereas  we  have  intelligence  out  of  our  native  country, 
of  arrangements  that  may  be  towards  us  in  regard  of 
the   great  variances  between   the  two  nations  of  Holland 

ment  of  the  revolutionary  war,  and  after  the  death  of  Gen.  Montgomery,  suc- 
ceeded him  in  the  command  of  the  army  in  Canada ;  the  late  Hon.  Joshua 
Thomas  of  Plymouth  another  descendant,  was  one  of  his  aids. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  15 

and  England,  the  court  have  ordered  warrants  to  be  di- 
rected to  every  town  within  the  government'  — '  to  send 
deputies  to  meet  with  the  magistrates,  April  1st,  1053,' — 
'  and  with  them  to  treat  and  conclude  on  such  military 
affairs  as,  through  God's  blessing,  may  probably  tend  to 
our  present  and  future  safety.  Plymouth  chose  John 
Cook  and  Thomas  Soutlnvorth  ;  Du.xbury,  Constant  South- 
worth  and  Lieutenant Nash  ;  Scituate,  James  Cud- 
worth  and  Sergeant Johnson  ;  Taunton,  Ensign  Oliver 

Purchase;  Sandwich,   James  Skiff';  Yarmouth,  Sergeant 

Rider,  John    Coram  ;    Barnstable,   Lieutenant 

Fuller,  Sergeant  Thomas  Hinckley  ;  Marshfield,  Josias 
Winslow  John  Bradford  ;  Eastham,  John  Doane,  Richard 
Sparrow  ;  Rehoboth,  John  Allen,  Peter  Hunt. 

Li  June,  1653,  all  the  assistants  were  reelected;  John 
Howland,  Lieutenant  Southworth,  John  Dunham,  senior, 
and  John  Cooke,  were  elected  deputies  from  Plymouth  ; 
George  Soule  and  Constant  Southworth  from  Duxbury  ; 
Humphrey  Turner  and  Thomas  Byrd  from  Scituate  ; 
James  Skiff'  and  Thomas  Tupper  from  Sandwich  ;  James 
Wyat  and  Richard  Williams  from  Taunton  ;  Thomas 
Hawes  and  Edmund  Hawes  from  Yarmouth  ;  Antiiony 
Annabl^  and  Nathaniel  Bacon  from  Barnstable  ;  Kenelm 
Winslow  and  Anthony  Eames  from  Marshfield  ;  Stephen 
Paine  and  Thomas  Cooper  from  Rehoboth  ;  John  Doane 
and  Richard  Higgins  from  Eastham. 

A  special  court  was  called  in  March,  1654,  to  which 
there  was  another  election  of  deputies.  The  deputies 
from  Duxbury,  Sandwich,  Taunton,  Rehoboth,  and  East- 
ham, were  reelected  ;  in  Plymouth,  Air  Howland,  South- 
worth,  Cook,  and  John  Winslow,  in  the  place  of  Mr  Dun- 
ham ;  James  Cudworth  and  Robert  Studson  (Stetson)  were 
elected  in  Scituate  ;  Anthony  Thacher  and  Edmund 
Hawes  in  Yarmouth ;  Thomas  Hinckley  and    Nathaniel 


16  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Bacon  in  Barnstable  ;  Josias  Winslow  and  Anthony  Eames, 
in  Marshfield. 

Mr  Lothrop  the  distinguished  pastor  of  Scituate  and 
Barnstable  died.     He  has  already  been  mentioned. 

In  1654,  Mr  Collier  succeeded  Captain  Soulhworth. 
The  other  assistants  were  reelected,  and  the  deputies 
from  Duxbury,  Scituate,  Barnstable,  and  Marshfield.  In 
Plymouth,  all  the  deputies  were  reelected  excepting  Mr 
Southworth,  who  was  succeeded  by  John  Dunham,  sen.  ; 
in  Sandwich,  James  Skiff  was  reelected,  with  Thomas 
Burgess  ;  in  Taunton,  Richard  Williams  was  reelected 
with  James  Walker;  in  Yarmouth,  Edmund  Hawes  with 
Samuel  Arnold  ;  in  Rehoboth,  Stephen  Paine  with  Peter 
Hunt  :  in  Eastham,  Josiah  Cooke  and  Daniel  Cole  were 
elected. 

The  treasurer  was  authorized  to  call  for  all  the  debts 
'  due  the  country,'  and  payment  to  be  made  at  such  places 
as  he  should  direct. 

Mr  Thomas  Prince  was  sent  by  the  court  to  the  Kenne- 
beck  patent,  to  settle  a  government,  for  which  purpose 
he  had  full  authority  both  from  Plymouth,  and  from  the 
English  parliament.  He  called  a  meeting  of  the  inhabit- 
ants. '  Sixteen  attended  and  took  the  oath  of  fidelity  to 
the  state  of  England,  and  to  the  governor  of  Plymouth.' 

Thomas  Southworth  was  appointed  the  agent  or  gov- 
ernor, and  '  several  laws  and  orders  were  promulgated.' 

At  the  court  in  August,  new  deputies  were  summoned. 

The  deputies  from  Plymouth,  Scituate,  Barnstable, 
Marshfield,  and  Rehoboth,  were  reelected.  In  Duxbury 
Christopher  Wadsworth  and  William  Paybody  were  elect- 
ed ;  Mr  Burgess  was  reelected  in  Sandwich,  with  Thomas 
Tupper;  Mr  Williams  was  reelected  in  Taunton,  with 
Oliver  Purchase  ;  Mr  Edmund  Hawes  was  reelected  in 
Yarmouth  with  Anthony  Thacher ;  Mr  Cole  was  reelected 
in  Eastham  with  John  Freeman. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  17 

In  June,  1655,  all  the  assistants  were  re-elected.  John 
Howland,  John  Dunham,  senior,  John  Cooke,  and  Thomas 
Clarke,  were  elected  deputies  from  Plymouth  ;  Constant 
Southworth  and  William  Paybody  from  Duxbury  ;  James 
Cudvvorth  and  Robert  Studson  from  Scituate ;  John 
Vincent  and  James  Skift'  from  Sandwich  ;  James  Wyat  and 
Ptichard  Williams  from  Taunton  ;  Edmund  Hawes  and  Wil- 
liam Nickerson  from  Yarmouth  ;  Thomas  Hinckley  and 
Nathaniel  Bacon  from  Barnstable  ;  Anthony  Eames  and 
Josias  Winslow  from  Marshfield  ;  Stephen  Paine  and  Pe- 
ter Hunt  from  Rehoboth  ;  Richard  Sparrow  and  Richard 
Higgens  from  Eastham. 

On  the  Sth  of  May  died  Edward  Winslow.  He  was  Death  and 
born  at  Droitwich,  Worcestershire,  (England)  in  1594,  character 
and  was  the  son  of  Edward  Winslow.       While  travelling  ward 

■VVinslow. 

on  the  continent  he  (accidentally  as  it  would  appear)  was 
led  to  Leyden.  This  was  at  a  period  when  the  minds  of 
many  were  inclined  to  serious  thinking,  and  another  re- 
ligious revolution  was  on  the  eve  of  commencement.  He 
embraced  tiie  principles  of  the  Puritans,  and  joined  Rob- 
inson's church.  Amongst  them  he  remained  and  married. 
At  that  time  he  must  have  been  very  young.  He  resolved 
to  share  their  fortunes  and  went  out  in  the  first  ship 
which  came  to  America.  Either  on  account  of  the 
respectability  of  his  family,  or  the  qualities  of  his  mind, 
he  was  viewed  with  more  than  ordinary  respect  by  the 
pilgrims.  His  name  appears  third  on  the  list  of  those 
who  signed  the  compact,  being  preceded  only  by  Carver 
and  Bradford,  and  the  precedence  of  age  was  laid  aside  to 
give  him  the  third  place.  His  wife  died  soon  after  his 
arrival,  and  he  then  married  Mrs  Susanna  W^hite  the 
widow  of  William  White,  one  of  the  most  respectable  of 
the  pilgrims.  This  marriage  was  the  first  in  the  colony, 
and  of  course  in  New  England  ;  it  took  place  on  the  J  2th 

PART  II.  3 


18  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

of  May,  1621.  It  is  a  singular  coincidence  that  Mrs 
White  should  have  been  the  mother  of  the  first  born  in 
New  England,  (Peregrine  White  ;)  to  have  been  the  first 
mother  and  the  first  bride  in  a  country  which  has  produced 
a  race  so  distinguished  as  the  New  Englanders,  would 
have  been  cited  by  the  ancients  as  an  instance  of  rare 
and  happy  fortune,  if  we  add  to  that  the  peculiar  happi- 
ness of  having  been  the  wife  of  a  distinguished  governor 
of  her  own  colony,  and  the  mother  of  another  equally 
distinguished,  who  to  his  other,  added  the  high  and  soli- 
tary honor  of  having  been  the  commander  in  chief  of  the 
forces  of  the  confederate  colonies  in  a  war  involving  their 
existence,  her  fortune  must  be  regarded  as  transcendantly 
prosperous. 

The  unwearied  activity  of  Winslow  in  meeting  and 
vanquishing  the  earlier  difficulties  of  the  colony  ;  his 
visits  to  Massasoiet,  and  his  almost  miraculous  cure  of 
that  good  Indian  when  afl^icted  with  a  sickness  supposed 
to  be  mortal  ;  his  capacity  for  trade,  and  his  perseverance 
and  enterprise  in  the  prosecution  of  commercial  under- 
takings, have  been  already  related. 

In  1623,  he  went  to  England  as  the  agent  of  the  colony, 
and  while  there  published  a  narrative  of  the  transactions 
in  New  England,  containing  much  information  respecting 
the  Indians,  &c.  This  work  being  written  in  a  style  far 
superior  to  the  ordinary  productions  of  that  day,  still  re- 
tains its  interest.  It  is  entitled  '  Good  News  from  New 
En<Tland,  or  a  relation  of  things  remarkable  in  that  plan- 
tation,  by  E.  Winslow.' 

He  returned  to  Plymouth  in  the  spring,  (1624,)  and 
brought  over  the  first  neat  cattle  which  were  imported  into 
the  English  colonies. 

In  the  same  year  he  again  visited  England,  and  was 
instrumental  in  vindicating  the  colony  against  the  asper- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  19 

sions  of  Lyford,  &c.  In  that  year  he  was  elected  an  as- 
sistant, and  in  1633,  governor  of  the  colony. 

In  1635,  he  went  out  again  as  the  agent  of  Plymouth 
and  Massachusetts,  to  make  the  proper  representations  of 
the  encroachments  of  the  French  and  the  Dutch,  and  to 
defend  the  colonies  against  the  accusations  of  Morton. 
He  proposed  and  submitted  a  general  plan  for  the  govern- 
ment and  defence  of  the  North  American  colonies,  in 
which  he  manifested  his  high  sense  of  their  capacity  for 
self  defence  and  self  government ;  but  his  plan  interfer- 
ing with  a  design  of  Archbishop  Laud,  Mason,  and 
Gorges,  to  establish  a  general  government  over  New  Eng- 
land, he  was  arrested  on  some  frivolous  pretence,  charged 
with  the  crime  of  separating  from  the  National  Church, 
and  thrown  into  the  Fleet  prison,  where  he  lay  seventeen 
weeks. 

On  his  return  to  Plymouth  in  1636,  he  was  again  elected 
governor,  to  which  office  he  was  again  elected  in  1644. 
When  not  the  chief,  he  was  always  the  second  magistrate. 
In  1643,  he  was  one  of  the  first  commissioners  on  the  part 
of  the  confederated  colonies  on  the  part  of  Plymouth.  In 
1646,  he  went  again  to  England  as  the  agent  of  Massa- 
chusetts to  answer  to  the  complaints  of  Gorton.  In  this 
affair  he  conducted  with  great  address,  for  the  conduct  of 
Massachusetts  had  been  such  as  deserved  severe  censure. 

Winslow  was  a  zealous  advocate  for  the  civilization  of 
the  Indians,  and  of  their  conversion  to  Christianity,  and 
by  his  zeal  and  influence  the  Society  for  Propagating 
the  Gospel  in  New  England,  was  formed  in  England  in 
1649. 

When  the  puritans  attained  political  power,  the  talents 
of  Winslow  were  appreciated,  and  his  prospects  of  dis- 
tinction at  home  became  so  flattering,  that  he  remained, 
and  never  after  returned  to  America. 


20  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

When  Cromwell  sent  out  the  expedition  under  Penn 
and  Venables  for  the  reduction  of  St  Domingo,  which 
terminated  in  the  capture  of  Jamaica,  Winslow  was  ap- 
pointed chief  commissioner,  to  superintend  and  direct  their 
operations,  and  died  of  a  fever  incidental  to  the  climate 
of  the  West  Indies,  while  on  ship-board.  May  8,  1655, 
aged  sixtyone. 

Edward  Winslow  was  a  gentleman  of  consummate  ad- 
dress, strictly  virtuous  principles,  and  fervent  piety. 
Although  his  intercourse  with  the  world,  and  witii  the 
best  society  of  England,  had  worn  off  that  austerity  and 
simplicity  of  manners  so  characteristic  of  the  puritans, 
his  devotion  was  not  the  less  sincere,  because  his  man- 
ners were  cheerful.  Cromwell  well  understood  the  fidelity 
of  his  principles  when  he  placed  him  at  the  head  of  the 
commission  for  superintending  the  expedition  against  St 
Domingo,  for  both  commanders  and  many  of  the  officers 
employed  on  that  expedition,  were  strongly  suspected  of 
cherishing  a  loyal  attachment  to  the  exiled  monarch,  and 
of  looking  with  deep  dislike  on  his  usurping  enemy  ;  he 
therefore  placed  one  in  this  responsible  station  whom  he 
could  tru?t.  The  colony  owed  to  Winslow  a  debt  of  gra- 
titude, for  in  devotion  and  zeal  for  her  interests  he  was 
not  excelled  by  any  one.  He  was  the  father  and  founder 
of  Marshfield,  and  the  large  estate  which  he  called  Cares- 
well,  s.till  remains  in  the  possession  of  his  descendants. 
His  son,  Josias  Winslow,  was  afterwards  governor  of  the 
colony,  but  of  him  hereafter. 

In  1656,  all  the  assistants  were  reelected  with  the  ex- 
ception of  Mr  Brown,  who  was  succeeded  by  Capt.  James 
Cudworth  of  Scituate.  The  deputies  from  Plymouth,  Dux- 
bury,  Scituate,  and  Taunton,  were  reelected  and  also  Mr 
Skiff  from  Sandwich,  Edmund  Hawes  from  Yarmouth,  An- 
thony Eames  from  Marshfield,  Stephen  Paine  from  Reho- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  21 

both,  and  Richard  Sparrow  from  Eastham,  Anthony  An- 
able  and  John  Smith  were  chosen  in  Barnstable,  Thomas 
Tupper  in  Sandwich,  Samuel  Arnold  in  Yarmouth,  An- 
thony Snow  in  Marshfield,  William  Carpenter  in  Rehoboth, 
and  John  Freeman  in  Eastham. 

Scarcely    had   the  grief  which  had  been  created  by  the  Death  and 
loss  of  Winslow   subsided,   before  the  people   were  again  ofstand- 
called  to  mourn  the  departure  of  another  ancient  and  faith- 
ful servant.      In  the  course  of  the  year.  Miles  Standish 
died  at  a  very  advanced  age  at  his  residence  in  Duxbury. 

Standish  was  born  in  Lancashire,  (England)  of  a  family  of 
note  (amongst  which  were  numbered  knights  and  bishops,) 
and  it  is  said  to  a  large  inheritance  which  was  '  surrepti- 
tiously detained  from  him.'  He  served  in  the  low  countries 
as  an  officer  in  the  armies  of  Queen  F^lizabeth  when  com- 
manded by  her  favorite  the  Earl  of  Leicester.  What  in- 
duced him  to  connect  himself  with  the  pilgrims  does  not 
appear.  He  took  up  his  residence  amongst  them  at  Ley- 
den  but  never  joined  their  church.  He  arrived  in  the  May 
Flower,  and  lost  his  wife  soon  after  his  arrival;  he  however 
married  again.  In  1621  he  was  elected  the  first  military 
commander  of  the  colony.  His  achievements  have  been 
related  in  the  course  of  this  work.  He  went  out  as  the 
agent  of  the  colony  in  1625  to  England,  and  resided  in 
London  at  the  very  period  when  the  pride  of  this  queen 
of  cities  was  laid  in  the  dust,  and  nought  was  heard  inkier 
streets  but  wailing  and  lamentation.  It  was  the  period  of 
the  last  and  most  deadly  plague. 

Being  an  accurate  surveyor,  he  was  generally  on  the 
committees  for  laying  out'  new  towns.  He  was  always 
the  military  commander,  always  one  of  the  council  of  war, 
generally  an  assistant;  sometimes  first  assistant  or  deputy 
governor  and  treasurer.  Standish  was  a  man  of  small 
stature,  of  a  quick  and  fiery  temper,  and  never  did  a  hu- 


22  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

man  form  enclose  a  more  intrepid  spirit.  Dangers  from 
which  almost  all  men  would  have  shrunk,  were  with  him 
only  an  incentive  to  enterprise.  He  asked  only  eight  men 
to  subdue  all  the  Indians  of  Massachusetts.  Alone  he 
took  from  the  trembling  hands  of  the  profligate  and  tur- 
bulent Morton,  his  loaded  musket  and  compelled  him  to 
yield  when  he  was  surrounded  by  his  whole  company,  and 
had  boasted  that  he  never  would  be  taken  alive.  He  did 
not  stand  aside  to  command  others  to  do  the  work  of  death, 
but  engaged  in  deadly  personal  conflicts,  the  fate  of  which 
rested  on  the  prowess  of  the  contending  individuals. 

Some  of  the  early  writers  have  censured  Standish  for 
his  violence,  but  he  never  exceeded  his  orders,  obeying 
the  civil  authority  to  tlie  very  letter  of  the  comtnand,  and 
at  every  hazard.  In  the  Pequot  war  he  commanded  the 
Plymouth  quota  and  had  commenced  his  march,  when  the 
news  was  received  of  the  total  overthrow  of  the  Pequots, 
and  as  late  as  1653  when  he  was  very  old,  'when  hostili- 
ties with  the  Dutch  at  Manhatton  were  apprehended,'  the 
command  of  the  colony  forces  was  entrusted  to  him.  How 
this  fierce  and  terrible  soldier,  never  cherishing  any  strong 
impressions  of  religion,  should  have  formed  an  attachment 
so  lasting,  and  bound  himself  to  the  pious  and  holy  mem- 
bers of  Robinson's  church,  (who  almost  resembled  the 
primitive  Christians)  by  every  tie  except  that  which  bound 
■them  to  each  other  j  and  should  have  fought  their  battles, 
cheerfully  shared  their  toils,  their  hardships,  and  their 
poverty  ;  their  councils  in  peace,  and  their  dangers  in  war  ; 
is  one  of  those  anomalies  in  human  nature  which  may  per- 
haps find  its  parallel  in  the  love  which  was  cherished  by 
the  Roman  soldiers  for  the  early  Christians. 

Standish  was  the  father  and  founder  of  Duxbury,  which 
he  named   from  the  seat  of  his  family  in  Lancashire,  and 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  23 

which  as  late  as    1707,  was  the  residence  of  sir  Thomas 
Standish.* 

'The  shaft  flew  thrice.'     The  people  of  the  colony  had  Death  and 

,  ,      ,  .  „    ,      .  ...     character 

scarcely  covered  the  remains  oi  their  veteran  warrior  with  of  Gov. 
tlie  earth,  when  they  were  summoned  to  perform  the  same  '^  '°'  ' 
duty  for  one  who  might  with  propriety  be  called  the  father 
of  the  colony;  for  the  care  of  Gov.  Bradford  over  this  in- 
fant settlement  had  been  truly  paternal  ;  he  had  guided 
its  councils  almost  from  its  commencement,  as  Gov.  Car- 
ver lived  but  a  few  months  after  his  arrival. 

William  Bradford  was  born  in  England  in  155S.  Both 
his  parents  dying  while  he  was  in  early  youth,  he  was  left  to 
the  protection  of  his  grand  parents,  and  after  tliem,  of  his 
uncles.  His  patrimony  was  large,  but  his  station  in  life 
was  amongst  the  yeomanry,  and  he  was  bred  to  agricul- 
ture. The  early  loss  of  his  parents,  probably  gave  a  se- 
rious cast  to  his  mind  and  he  devoted  all  his  leisure  time 
to  the  reading  of  the  scriptures,  and  notwithstanding  the 
opposition  and  angry  remonstrances  of  all  his  relatives, 
this  unfledged  youth  embraced  the  doctrines  which  were 
taught  by  the  venerable  Clifton,  and  afterwards  by  Robin- 
son, and  became  one  of  their  most  devoted  followers.  At 
the  early  age  of  eighteen  he  suffered  imprisonment  at 
Boston  in  Lincolnshire,  for  attempting  to  escape  to  Hol- 
land, but  in  pity  to  his  youth  he  was  released.  He  was 
afterwards  arrested  but  finally  succeeded  in  escaping.  In 
Holland  he  learned  the  art  of  dying  silk,  and  engaged  a 
little  in  commerce. 

He  was  a  zealous  advocate  for  the  removal  of  the  com- 
pany to  America,  and  came  over  in  the  May  Flower  amongst 

*  He  left  three  sons,  Miles,  Alexander,  and  Josiah.  Alexander  married  the 
daughter  of  John  Alden;  from  him  are  descended  two  gentlemen  of  distinguish- 
ed literary  talents.  Dr  Wheelock  late  president  of  Dartmoutii  college,  and  Dr 
Kirkland  late  president  of  Harvard  college.  Gen.  Ripley  late  of  the  United 
States  army,  is  also  of  this  descent.     His  other  descendants  are  numerous. 


24  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

the  first.  His  wife  was  drowned  while  that  vessel  lay  in 
Cape  Cod  harbor.  He  afterwards  married  Mrs  Alice  South- 
worth  a  lady  of  extraordinary  capacity  and  worth. 

On  the  death  of  Gov.  Carver,  although  he  was  confined 
at  the  time  with  sickness  and  was  only  thirtytwo  years  old, 
he  was  unanimously  elected  his  successor;  he  conducted 
the  affairs  of  the  colony  for  tlie  greater  part  of  the  time 
as  chief,  and  two  or  three  years  as  second  magistrate,  with 
consummate  prudence  and  ability  for  a  period  of  thirty- 
seven  years. 

In  his  transactions  with  the  Indians  he  was  strictly  just 
and  after  those  unavoidable  sparklings  which  the  neighbor- 
hood of  two  distinct  races  of  men  like  the  collision  of 
flint  and  steel,  arc  sure  to  strike  out  at  first,  the  animosities 
which  vicinage  engendered  were  allayed,  and  he  preserved 
the  relations  of  peace  unbroken.  His  mingled  system 
of  mildness  and  energy  conciliated  their  affections  and 
extorted  their  respect.  When  necessary  he  alarmed  their 
fears.  When  the  emblematic  defiance  of  the  sachem  of  the 
Narragansetts  was  conveyed  in  the  shape  of  a  bundle  of 
arrows  bound  together  by  the  skin  of  a  serpent,  he  an- 
swered it  promptly  by  sending  back  the  skin  filled  with 
powder  and  bullets  ;  and  the  Indians  were  taught  to  believe 
that  the  plague  was  buried  under  the  store  house  at  Ply- 
mouth. He  soon  understood  all  the  peculiarities  of  their 
simple  characters.  His  sagacity  in  detecting  and  his  en- 
ergy in  overcoming  the  designs  of  the  factionists  who  dis- 
turbed his  government  have  been  already  described. 

Although  his  early  pursuits  were  unfavorable  to  the 
cultivation  of  learning,  yet  he  applied  himself  with  great 
diligence  to  the  study  of  the  ancient  languages  both 
Greek  and  Latin  which  he  mastered.  Of  the  Hebrew  his 
knowledge  was  intimate.  The  French  and  Dutch  lan- 
guages he  spoke  with  ease.     He  read  much  on  subjects 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  25 

of  history  and  philosophy.  In  theology  he  was  deeply 
versed,  and  few  there  were  who  could  contend  with  him 
successfully  in  a  polemical  dispute.  He  wrote  consider- 
ably ;  the  loss  of  his  invaluable  manuscript  history  of  the 
colony  to  1646,  can  never  be  supplied.  He  attempted 
poetry  but  the  muses  were  unpropitious. 

As  chief  magistrate  he  was  compelled  to  deal  with  many 
turbulent  spirits,  yet  he  seldom  failed  to  enforce  respect 
both  to  the  laws  and  the  magistrates,  rather  by  appealing 
to  the  sense  of  shame  and  fear  of  self-degradation,  than 
by  the  exercise  of  the  penal  authority  of  the  government. 

His  faith  endured  to  the  last,  and  he  died  full  of  hope. 
Conversing  with  his  friends  on  the  day  of  his  death,  he 
spoke  with  the  cheerfulness  of  a  saint.  '  God  (said  he) 
has  given  me  a  pledge  of  my  happiness  in  another  world, 
and  the  first  fruits  of  eternal  glory.'  He  died  March  9, 
J  657,  at  the  age  of  69.* 

Previous  to  the  death  of  Gov.  Bradford,  the  people  be-  indiff'er- 

'         '  eiice  of 

gan  to  manifest  an  alarming  indifference  as  to  the  support  the  people 
of  their  ministers  ;  many  doubted  the  benefit  of  stated  clergy. 
preaching,  and  chose  to  exercise  their  own  spiritual  gifts. 
So  miserable  was  the  support,  that  many  left  the  colony. 
Mr  Reyner  left  Plymouth  in  1654.  Mr  Partridge  re- 
mained at  Duxbury,  but  died  in  165S.  Dr  Chauncy  left 
Scituate  1656.  Mr  Street  left  Taunton  for  New  Haven. 
Mr  Leveredge,   Sandwich  for  Long  Island.     Mr  Bulkley 

*  He  left  three  sons  and  a  daughter.  His  son  William  obtained  high  dis- 
tinctions in  the  colony,  being  elected  an  assistant  soon  after  the  death  of  his 
father,  and  chief  military  commander.  When  the  colonial  government  termi- 
nated, he  was  deputy  governor,  and  afterwards  was  chosen  a  councillor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts.    His  other  sons  were  John  and  Joseph. 

His  more  remote  posterity  have  been  distinguished  and  honored,  and  are  to 
this  day.  One  of  them  was  in  the  senate  of  the  United  States  from  Rhode 
Island. 

PART    II.  4 


26  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY, 

Marshfield,  for  Concord.     Mr  Lothrop  of  Barnstable  died 
in  1653. 

The   places   of  these   distinguished  men  were  not  sup- 
plied, and  in  the  younger  settlements  of  Castham,  Bridge- 
water,  &,c,  no  ministers  had  been  settled.     Yarmouth  alsa 
was  destitute. 
First  ap-        The  religious  zeal  of  Massachusetts  had  not  been  cool- 

D'^'nrn.ncG 

of  the  ed,  and  they  viewed  the  destitute  situation  of  their  neigh- 
and^ihr  boriiig  colouy  with  sorrow  and  alarm  ;  their  fears  were 
proceed-    heitrhtcncd    from    the    intrusion  of  the    Quakers   into  the 

ings  o 

against      colouics,  a  scct  which  they  abhorred. 

tliem.  ... 

The  following  communication  was  addressed  by  their 
General  Court  to  the  commissioners  of  the  colonies  who 
met  at  Plymouth  in  September  1656. 

'  Honored  Gkntlemkn.' — The  remembrance  of  the  so- 
lemn  covenants  and  promise  the   United  Colonies  (in  the 
beginning  of  tlieir  combination)  made  one  with  another, 
not  only  to  strengthen  the  hearts  and  hands  of  each  other 
in  the  propagating  and  maintaining  religion  in  its  purity, 
but  also  to  be  assisting  to  each  other  where  any  deficiency 
in  such  respects  may  appear,  hath  put  us  upon  the  pursu- 
ance of  our  endeavors  to  discharge  our  duties,  in  desiring 
you  to  consider  of  some  such  meet  way  and  ex         as  where 
any   defect  appears   in  any  colony  ;  in  the  right  improve- 
ment of  such  means   and  ordinances  as  the  Lord  hath  ap- 
pointed all  his  to  use  and  improve  for  the   edification   of 
the  body   whereof  Christ  is  the  head  till  his  second  com- 
ing.     Having  heard    sometime   since  that  our    neighbor 
colony  of  Plymouth,  our  beloved  brethren,  in  a  great  part 
seem  to  be  wanting  to  themselves  in  a  due  acknowledgment 
of,  and  encouragement  to  the  ministers  of  the  gospel,  so  as 
many  pious  ministers  of  the    gospel    have  (how  justly  we 
know  not)  deserted    their  stations,  callings,  and  relations, 
our  desire  is  that  some   such  course  might  be  taken,  as 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  27 

tTiat  a  pious  orthodox  ministry  may  be  reinstated  amongst 
them,  that  so  the  flood  of  error  and  principles  of  anarchy 
which  will  not  long  be  kept  out  where  Sathan  and  his  in- 
struments are  so  prevalent  as  to  prevail  to  the  crying  down 
of  ministry  and  ministers  may  be  prevented.  Here  hath 
arrived  amongst  us  several  persons  professing  themselves 
Quakers,  fit  instruments  to  propagate  the  kingdom  of  Sa- 
than. For  the  securing  of  ourselves  and  our  neighbors 
from  such  pests,  we  have  imprisoned  them,  till  they  be 
despatched  away  to  the  place  from  whence  they  came, 
one  of  which,  Richard  Smith,  we  have  let  out  of  prison  to  • 
return  to  his  family  at  Southampton,  whence  we  hope  and 
doubt  not,  our  neighbors  of  Connecticut  will  be  careful  so 
to  order  it,  as  he  may  not  do  the  least  prejudice.  As  also 
that  some  general  rules  may  be  commended  to  the  several 
jurisdictions  for  the  settling  of  government  amongst  the 
Indians,  &ic.' 

'  And  that  some  general  rules  may  be  also  commended 
to  each  General  Court  to  prevent  the  coming  in  amongst 
us  from  foreign  places  such  notorious  heretics  as  Quakers, 
ranters,  &c,  and  that  strong  waters  to  the  Indians  in  all 
the  jurisdictions  may  be  forbidden,  that  the  name  of  God 
be  not  dishonored,  &,c.' 

To  this  the  Commissioners  reply.  '  The  Commissioners 
having  considered  the  premises,  cannot  but  acknowledge 
the  godly  care  and  zeal  of  the  gentlemen  of  iMassachusetts 
to  uphold  and  maintain  those  professed  ends  of  coming 
into  these  parts  of  the  combination  of  the  united  colonies, 
which  if  not  attended  in  the  particulars  aforesaid,  will  be 
rendered  wholly  frustrate,  the  profession  miserably  scan- 
dalized, ourselves  become  a  reproach  in  the  eyes  of  those 
that  (cannot  without  admiration)  behold  our  sudden  de- 
fection from  our  fitst  principles.  We  cannot  therefore  but 
with  all  earnestness,  commend  it  to  the  wisdom  and  jus- 


28  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

tice  of  the  several  jurisdictions  to  take  effectual  care,  and 
make  answerable  provision  that  religion  and  the  ordinan- 
ces of  Christ  professed,  may  be  upheld  and  maintained  ; 
which  cannot  be  but  by  a  due  encouragement  of  an  able 
and  orthodox  ministry,  and  a  discountenancing  of  that 
which  is  heterodox,  and  an  effectual  course  to  keep  out 
heretics,  the  great  engine  of  Sathan,  in  these  times  to  over- 
throw the  truth,  and  because  the  business  is  of  such  high 
concernment  to  all,  we  shall  more  particularly  impart  our 
thoughts  to  serious  consideration. 

'  1.  We  cannot  without  breach  of  charity  but  take  it  for 
a  thing  granted  generally  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  United 
Colonies,  that  an  able  orthodox  ministry  is  a  precious  fruit 
of  Christ's  death,  resurrection,  and  ascension,  and  neces- 
sary for  the  spiritual  good  of  his  people,  and  to  be  duly 
sought  after  in  every  society  or  township  within  the  sev- 
eral jurisdictions. 

'  2.  And  secondly,  that  a  competent  maintenance  pro- 
portionable to  the  ability  of  the  place  and  necessity  of  the 
minister,  is  a  debt  of  justice  and  charity. 

'3.  Hence,  thirdly,  the  minister  may  justly  expect  it  from 
the  society  and  township  wherein  he  labors. 

'4.  Tlie  reference  or  relation  of  a  minister  being  to  the 
whole  society  jointly,  whether  in  church  or  not,  his  expec- 
tation of  maintenance  and  the  debt  of  justice  is  from  the 
whole  society  jointly. 

'  5.  Although  the  society  may,  according  to  their  dis- 
cretion, use  divers  ways  to  raise  his  maintenance,  yet  if 
the  ways  be  ineffectual,  though  the  defect  may  be  by  some 
particular  person,  yet  the  society  cannot  be  discharged, 
but  is  the  debtor. 

'  6.  The  engagement  being  upon  the  society,  and  that 
according  to  religion  and  right  reason,  it  necessarily 
foUoweth  that  the  society  be  enabled  with  sufficient  power 
10  discharge  itself. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY  29 

'  7.  Therefore  the  General  Courts  shall  declare  such  a 
power  to  be  in  such  societies,  that  there  may  be  no  pre- 
tence in  them  for  want  thereof;  and  if  any  society  or 
township  shall  be  wanting  either  out  of  neglect  or  opinion 
to  procure  and  maintain  as  abovesaid  an  orthodox  n)inistry 
according  to  the  gospel,  we  conceive  by  the  rules  of  scrip- 
ture and  practice  of  not  only  christian  governments,  but 
even  of  heathen,  who  not  only  held  their  sacra  in  venera- 
tion, but  took  care  of  those  that  had  the  keeping  of  them, 
and  the  charge  of  making  known  their  mysteries.  The 
several  General  Courts  stand  charged  with  the  care  that  the 
people  professing  Christianity,  own  and  live  according  to 
the  rules  and  ordinances  of  their  profession,  and  that  the 
dispensers  thereof  be  encouraged  as  aforesaid.  The 
maintenance  of  the  ministers  being  a  debt  of  justicefrom 
the  society,  and  the  society  being  empowered  to  discharge 
it.  If  any  particular  person  shall  be  defective  to  the 
society,  they  ought  to  be  ordered  by  the  ordinary  course 
of  justice. 

'These  generals  we  thought  good  to  propose  from  whence 
we  leave  it  to  the  wisdom  of  the  General  Courts  to  draw 
up  such  conclusions  and  orders,  as  may  attain  the  end 
desired  ;  and  if  any  of  the  members  of  the  said  courts 
shall  not  concur  (at  present,)  with  our  apprehensions,  we 
do  earnestly  desire  that  by  all  means  they  would  labor  to 
inform  and  satisfy  themselves  of  the  truth  of  the  particu- 
lars abovesaid,  whereof  we  for  our  parts  have  no  doubt. 
We  do  further  propose  to  the  several  General  Courts  that 
all  Quakers,  ranters,  and  other  notorious  heretics  be  pro- 
hibited coming  into  the  United  Colonies,  and  if  any  shall 
hereafter  come  or  arise  amongst  us,  that  they  be  forthwith 
secured  or  removed  out  of  all  the  jurisdictions. 

'That  some  safe  provision  be  made  against  selling  or 
giving  strong  liquors  to  the  Indians,  without  part'  ;ula. 


30  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

express  license  from  some  magistrate  or  other  officer 
thereunto  deputed,  and  that  upon  some  weighty  occasion 
or  exigent. 

Thomas  Prence  was  chosen  governor  in  1657,  as  the 
successor  of  Bradford.  There  seemed  to  be  an  obvious 
propriety  in  this  election.  Mr  Prence  had  held  that  office 
as  early  as  1634,  and  occasionally  afterwards.  None 
stood  before  him  in  public  estimation  but  Bradford  and 
Edward  Winslow,  and  with  them  he  shared  the  confidence 
of  the  people,  and  the  highest  offices  of  the  government. 
As  both  these  respectable  men  were  now  removed,  tiiere 
could  have  been  but  little  hesitation  in  giving  him  the 
station  of  which  he  was  not  deemed  unworthy  when  they 
were  eligible.  To  this  office  he  was  annually  elected  until 
his  death  in  1673. 

William  Collier  succeeded  him  as  first  assistant.  The 
other  assistants  now  elected  were  Timothy  Hatherly,  John 
Alden,  Thomas  Willet,  James  Cudvvorth,  Josias  Winslow, 
Thomas  Southworth. 

The  deputies  from  Plymouth  were  William  Bradford, 
Robert  Finney,  and  Ephraim  Morton  ;  Duxbury,  William 
Paybody,  John  Rogers  ;  Scituate,  Edward  Jenkins,  John 
Bryant  ;  Taunton,  Richard  Williams,  James  Wyat ;  Sand- 
wich, Thomas  Tupper,  James  Skiif ;  Barnstable,  Anthony 
Annable,  John  Smith  ;  Yarmouth,  Edmund  Hawes,  Thomas 
Fallard  ;  Marshfield,  Anthony  Eames;  Eastham,  Nicholas 
Snow,  Richard  Higgins  ;  Rehoboth,  Stephen  Paine, 
William  Sabin  j  Bridgewater,  for  the  first  time,  John 
Willis. 

It  was  in  the  year  1657,  that  the  first  legal  proceedings 
against  Quakers  were  instituted.  This  sect  had  just  ap- 
peared in  England.  The  extravagancies  of  James  Naylor 
and  the  enthusiasm  of  George  Fox,  had  attracted  the 
public  attention  there.     When  the  Quakers  appeared  in 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  31 

New  England,  it  was  during  their  first  effervescence  ;  the 
materials  were  still  fermenting,  and  had  not  as  yet  worked 
off"  the  scum  and  the  dregs  which  all  new  religious  sects 
are  sure  to  bring  up.  This  happened  a  few  years  after- 
wards, and  under  the  wise  guidance  of  the  illustrious  and 
enlightened  William  Penn,  those  of  Pennsylvania  appear 
to  have  formed  one  of  the  wisest,  tlie  most  virtuous,  most 
tolerant,  and  perfect  political  societies  that  ever  existed. 

In  Plymouth,  the  riotous  and  turbulent  conduct  of  Gor- 
ton was  yet  remembered,  and  the  Quakers,  whose  tenets 
and  practices  bore  some  resemblance  to  his,  were  in  their 
minds  associated  and  almost  identified  with  that  insolent 
fanatic,  and  the  government  and  people  were  thus  pre- 
disposed to  view  them  with  dislike,  and  it  was  ordered  by 
the  Court  '  that  in  case  any  shall  bring  in  any  Quaker, 
ranter,  or  other  notorious  heretic,  either  by  land  or  water, 
into  any  part  of  this  government,  shall  forthwith,  upon 
order  of  any  one  magistrate,  return  them  to  the  place  from 
whence  they  came,  or  clear  the  government  of  them,  on 
the  penalty  of  paying  a  fine  of  20s.  for  every  week  that 
theyshail  stay  in  the  government  after  warning.' 

The  Court  subsequently  passed  a  more  severe  law,  with 
a  preamble  setting  forth  the  causes  of  the  law.  '  Where- 
as, there  hath  several  persons  come  into  this  government 
called  Quakers,  whose  doctrines  and  practices  manifestly 
tend  to  the  subversion  of  the  fundamentals  of  christian 
religion,  church  order,  and  the  civil  peace  of  this  govern- 
ment, as  appears  by  the  testimonies  given  in  sundry  depo- 
sitions and  otherwise.  It  is  therefore  enacted  by  the 
Court  and  the  authority  thereof,  that  no  Quaker  or  person 
commonly  so  called,  be  entertained  by  any  person  or  per- 
sons within  this  government  under  the  penalty  of  five 
pounds  for  every  such  default,  or  be  whipped.  And  in 
case  any  one  shall   entertain  any  such  pjerson   ignorantly. 


32  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

if  he  shall  testify  on  his  oath  that  he  knew  not  them  to  be 
such,  he  shall  be  freed  of  the  aforesaid  penalty,  provided 
he  upon  his  first  discerning  them  to  be  such,  do  discover 
them  to  the  constable  or  his  deputy.' 

On  the  Gth  of  October,  1657,  Humphrey  Norton  was 
summoned  to  appear  at  the  Court,  and  was  examined  '  and 
found  guilty  (according  to  the  Court  record,)  of  divers 
horrid  errors.'  He  was  sentenced  '  speedily  to  depart  the 
government,'  and  the  under  marshal  was  required  to  take 
him  into  custody,  and  to  conduct  him  to  Assonet,  near 
Rhode  Island. 

The  spirit  of  Norton  was  not  subdued,  and  he  returned 
again  into  the  Plymouth  jurisdiction  accompanied  by  one 
John  Rouse.  These  Quakers  appeared  at  the  Court  in 
June  1658,  and  were  apprehended  and  committed  to 
prison.  When  they  were  examined  before  the  Court,  Nor- 
ton said  sundry  times  to  the  Governor,  '  thou  lyest ;' 
'  Thomas,  thou  art  a  malicious  man.'  The  conduct  of 
Rouse  was  equally  turbulent.  They  were  remanded,  but 
in  a  short  time  were  again  brought  before  the  Court,  as  a 
paper  had  been  presented  to  the  Court  by  one  Christopher 
Winter,  which  contained  an  account  of  many  objectiona- 
ble expressions  on  the  subject  of  religion,  which  had  been 
uttered  by  Norton.  Norton  was  furnished  with  a  copy, 
and  was  confronted  with  Winter,  and  they  varied  but 
little  in  their  respective  statements.  Norton  again  abused 
the  governor  with  much  foul  language,  saying  '  thy  cla- 
morous tongue  I  regard  no  more  than  the  dust  under  my 
feet,  and  thou  art  like  a  scolding  woman,  and  thou  pratest, 
and  deridest  me,'  &-c. 

Norton  and  Rouse  were  severally  required,  '  that  as 
they  professed  themselves  to  be  subjects  to  the  State  of 
England  that  they  would  take  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  be 
true  to  that  State,  which  they  refused  to  do,   saying  they 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  33 

would  take  no  oath  at  all.'  On  this  refusal  they  were 
sentenced  to  a  whipping.  This  punishment  was  inflicted, 
for  which  the  under  marshal  required  a  fee  !  They  refused 
to  pay,  and  were  again  committed  to  prison,  where  they 
remained  until  the  lOih  of  June,  when  they  compromised 
with  the  marshal,  and  left  the  jurisdiction. 

Norton  had  offered  a  written  paper  to  the  governor, 
which  he  refused  to  receive.  Smarting  with  the  sense  of 
the  severity  and  cruelty  with  which  he  had  been  treated, 
he  addressed  a  letter  to  Governor  Prince  and  another  to 
Mr  Alden,  one  of  the  assistants,  in  which  he  vented  his 
resentment  in  strains  approaching  to  eloqilfence,  and 
claimed  to  be  a  prophet,  a  delusion  which  he  probably 
cherished  in  sincerity. 

'  Thomas  Prencc,  thou  who  hast  bent  thy  heart  to  work 
wickedness,  and  with  thy  tongue  hast  set  forth  deceit ; 
thou  imaginest  mischief  upon  thy  bed,  and  hatchest  thy 
hatred  in  thy  secret  chamber  ;  the  strength  of  darkness 
is  over  thee,  and  a  malicious  mouth  hast  thou  opened 
against  God  and  his  anointed,  and  with  thy  tongue  and 
lips  hast  thou  uttered  perverse  things  ;  thou  hast  slandered 
the  innocent  by  railing,  lying,  and  false  accusations,  and 
with  thy  barbarous  heart  hast  thou  caused  their  blood  to 
be  shed.  Thou  hast  through  these  things  broken  and 
transgressed  the  laws  and  ways  of  God,  and  equity  is  not 
before  thy  eyes ;  the  curse  causeless  cannot  come  upon 
thee,  nor  the  vengeance  of  God  unjustly  cannot  fetch  thee 
up  ;  thou  makest  thyself  merry  with  thy  secret  malice,  and 
when  thou  actest  or  executest  it,  it  is  in  derision  and 
scorn.  The  deadly  drink  of  the  cup  of  indignation  thou 
cannot  escape,  and  the  grief  and  cause  of  travail  will 
not  be  greater  than  thine.  Since  first  I  saw  thee,  and 
before,  thy  false  and  lying  tongue  hath  been  forged  against 
me.     I  shall  not  write  nor  speak  this  without  ground,  as 

PART    II.  5 


34  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

thou  hast  done  by  me,  but  plainly  shall  present  thy  doings 
before  thy  face  ;  as  firstly,  thy  former  warrant  was  forged 
upon  a  filthy  lie,  and  therein  thou  tillest  me  an  extrava- 
gant person  ;  thy  second  had  helping  hand  in  causing  me 
to  be  recorded-  for  several  errors,  and  like  a  shameless 
man  wo  Id  neither  acknowledge  nor  deny;  thy  third  that 
John  Rouse  and  I  were  inordinate  fellows,  and  never  in 
the  least  made  it  appear  wherein  ;  thy  fourth  that  I  in- 
tended within  two  days  after  the  time  thou  spake  it,  to 
make  a  preachment,  as  thou  in  thy  derision  called  it  there- 
aways  ;  thy  fifth,  thy  promise  that  I  should  have  the  law, 
and  afterwards  went  about  to  deny  it,  so  that  as  from  thee 
I  never  had  it  yet;  thy  sixth,  popish  and  Jesuitical  names, 
withal  thy  lying  slanders  and  false  aspersions  cast  upon 
us  from  thy  clamorous  tongue  ;  thy  seventh,  acting  con- 
trary to  law,  equity  and  justice,  and  judgment,  according 
to  the  evil  of  thine  own  heart, —  all  these  art  thou  guilty 
of,  besides  the  denying  of  my  paper  which  was  presented 
to  thee,  containing  part  of  my  grounds  of  my  coming; 
thy  eighth,  thy  striving  to  dash  my  words  back  upon  me, 
and  to  hinder  me  to  speak  in  the  peoples'  hearing,  striving 
what  thou  could  to  stain  the  truth  of  God  with  thy  envious 
tongue,  all  which  things  is  charged  upon  thy  head,  and 
as  a  peal  of  hailstones  will  pelt  upon  thy  heart ;  thou 
hast  perverted  justice  and  true  judgment,  and  hast  de- 
frauded the  poor  and  needy  ;  thou  hast  caused  to  defraud 
the  righteous  owner  of  his  goods,  and  is  heaping  it  up  as 
upon  a  hill,  wherewith  thou  wilt  purchase  to  thyself  and 
others  a  field  of  blood,  wherein  to  bury  your  dead.  John 
Alden  is  to  thee  like  unto  a  packhorse,  whereupon  thou 
layest  thy  beastly  bag  ;  cursed  are  all  they  that  have  a 
hand  therein  ;  the  cry  of  vengeance  will  pursue  thee  day 
and  night,  for  other  mens'  goods,  hard  speeches,  un- 
righteous actions,  which  thou  hast  done  and  spoken  against 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  35 

Others  and  us,  without  and  contrary  to  the  righteous  law  ; 
so  shall  rest  upon  thee  as  frontlets  upon  thy  head,  and  as 
we  have  suffered  without  law,  so  shalt  thou  perish  without 
law  if  thou  repent  not.  The  days  of  thy  wailing  will 
be  like  unto  that  of  a  woman  tliat  murthers  the  fruit  of 
her  womb  ;  the  anguish  and  pain  that  will  enter  thy  reins 
will  be  like  gnawing  worms  lodging  betwixt  thy  heart  and 
liver.  When  these  things  come  upon  thee,  and  thy  back 
bowed  down  with  pain,  in  that  day  and  hour  thou  shalt 
know  to  thy  grief  that  prophets  of  the  Lord  God  we  are, 
and  the  God  of  vengeance  is  our  God.' 

'  Humphrey  Norton.' 

'  P.  S.  I  have  sent  thee  here  enclosed  a  reply  to  C. 
Winter's  deposition  ;  also  1  have  sent  already  a  true  rela- 
tion of  part  of  thy  proceedings  towards  London,  with  a 
copy  of  the  fines  laid  on  and  levied  of  the  people  of  God, 
with  a  copy  of  thy  late  laws.' 

To  Alden,  Norton  wrote  as  follows. 

'  John  Alden,  I  have  weighed  thy  ways,  and  thou  art 
like  one  fallen  from  thy  first  love  ;  a  tenderness  once  I 
did  see  in  thee,  and  moderation  to  act  like  a  sober  man, 
which  through  evil  counsel  and  self-love  thou  art  drawn 
aside  from.  If  there  be  in  thee  any  expectation  of  mercy, 
do  thou  follow  the  example  of  Timothy  Hatherly  and 
withdraw  thy  body  for  ever  appearing  at  that  beastly 
bench,  where  the  law  of  God  is  cast  behind  your  backs, 
and  from  whence  God  hath  withdrawn  himself  until  he 
have  overturned  it,  and  settled  such  as  shall  act  according 
to  his  law  and  contrary  to  the  will  of  man  ;  also,  account 
thou  must  for  that  wicked  act  in  sending  forth  thy  warrant 
to  force  away  other  men's  goods  for  keeping  the  law  of 
Christ ;  again,  let  the  cursed  purse  be  cast  out  of  thy 
house  wherein  is  held  the  goods  of  other  men,  lest  through 


36  MEMOIR   OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

it  a  moth  enter  into  thy  house,  and  a  mildew  upon  thy 
estate,  for  in  keeping  of  it,  and  acting  for  it  thou  art  no 
other  than  packhorse  to  Thomas  Prence,  which  if  the 
council  of  God  thou  stand,  his  present  flattery  to  thee 
will  be  turned  into  enmity  and  wrath  against  thee,  and 
then  would  thou  see  that  thou  art  set  in  the  midst  of  a 
company  that's  like  a  hedge  of  vipers  ;  the  best  of  them 
is  not  worthy  to  hew  wood  in  the  house  of  our  God. — 
Receive  my  instruction  into  thy  heart  as  oil,  and  depart 
from  amongst  them,  and  thou  wilt  see  that  it  is  better  to 
live  of  thine  own,  like  a  poor  wise  man,  and  at  peace  with 
God  and  his  people,  than  like  a  self-conceited  fool  puffed 
up  with  the  pride  of  his  heart,  because  he  hath  gotten  the 
name  of  a  magistrate  as  some  of  them  is.  In  love  this  is 
written,  to  dishearten  thee  in  time  before  the  evil  day 
overtake  thee  ;  let  it  be  so  received  from  thy  friend. 

'  Humphrey  Norton.' 

'  Consider  how  corruptly  thou  dealt  concerning  the 
paper  presented  to  Thomas  Prence,  and  thee,  and  others.' 

'Rhode  Island,  the  16th,  4th  month,  58.' 

During  the  year  1658,  several  disfranchising  laws  were 
passed  against  the  Quakers.  '  No  Quaker,  Ranter,  or 
any  such  corrupt  person,'  was  permitted  to  be  a  freeman 
of  the  corporation. 

'  All  such  as  were  opposers  of  the  good  and  wholesome 
laws  of  the  colony,  or  manifest  opposers  of  the  true  wor- 
ship of  God,  or  such  as  refuse  to  do  the  country  service, 
being  called  thereunto '  on  conviction,  were  denied  the 
privileges  of  freemen. 

Any  freemen  of  the  corporation    being   Quakers,   '  or 
such  as  are  manifest  encouragers  of  them,  and  so  judged" 
by  the  court;  and   such  as  spoke  contemptuously  of  the 
court  and  the   laws ;  and  such  as  were  adjudged  by  the 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

court   grossly  scandalous,  as  lyers,  drunkards,  swearers, 
&c,  were  to  lose  the  fieedom  of  the  corporation.' 

All  such  as  refused  to  take  the  oath  of  fidelity,  as  Qua- 
kers, and  their  abettors,  were  denied  a  vote  in  the  choice 
of  public  officers,  and  were  restricted  from  holding  offices 
of  trust. 

The  court  also  j)assed  another  law  with  this  pregnant 
preamble  :  '  Whereas  sundry  persons  both  Quakers  and 
others,  wander  up  and  down  in  this  jurisdiction,  and  follow 
no  lawful  calling  to  earn  their  own  bread,  and  also  use  all 
endeavors  to  subvert  civil  state,  and  pull  down  all  churches 
and  ordinances  of  God  to  thrust  us  out  of  the  ways  of  God, 
notwithstanding  all  former  laws  provided  for  the  contrary.' 

The  court  therefore  directed  that  a  workhouse  or  house 
of  correction  should  be  erected  for  the  restraint  of  all 
such  vagabonds  '  as  wander  up  and  down  without  any 
lawful  calling,  and  also  all  idle  persons,  or  rebellious 
children,  or  servants  that  are  stubborn  and  will  not  work 
to  earn  their  own  bread,  and  yet  have  not  wherewith 
to  maintain  themselves,'  who  should  be  compelled  to  earn 
their  subsistence  by  their  work,  under  the  direction  of  an 
overseer  appointed  by  the  government. 

On  the  11th  of  May,  1659,  Lawrence  Southwick,  Cas- 
sandra his  wife,  Samuel  Shattock,  Nicholas  Phelps, 
Joshua  Baffam,  and  Josiah  Southwick,  were  sentenced 
according  to  a  previous  order  of  court,  to  banishment,  to 
depart  out  of  the  jurisdiction  by  the  8th  day  of  June,  on 
pain  of  death  ;  delaying,  they  were  to  be  imprisoned, 
tried,  and  if  found  guilty  '  of  the  breach  of  t^his  law,' 
were  to  be  put  to  death. 

Much  censure  has  been  thrown  on  the  government  of 
Plymouth  for  the  severity  of  these  laws,  and  the  cruelty 
of  the  punishments  which  were  inflicted  on  the  Quakers. 
Although  persecution  and  intolerance  are  odious  in  them- 


38  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

selves,  yet  the  task  of  palliation  at  least,  in  this  case  b' 
not  difficult,  although  that  of  justification  might  not  be  so 
easy. 

The  Quakers  who  first  appeared  in  the  colony  of  Ply- 
mouth, were  not  inhabitants,  but  came  from  abroad, 
originally  from  England,  and  immediately  from  Barbadoes. 
Although  they  professed  the  principles  of  peace  and  be- 
nevolence, yet  they  waged  a  furious  war  against  a  religion 
which  was  much  endeared  to  the  people  whom  they  were 
endeavoring  to  proselyte  ;  for  which  that  people  had  suf- 
fered much,  and  were  impressed  with  a  strong  conviction 
of  its  truth.  Their  laws,  their  government,  their  forms  of 
worship,  all  which  they  had  been  taught  to  venerate,  and 
accustomed  to  love,  were  denounced  in  no  very  civil  terms 
by  strangers.  Their  magistrates  and  ministers  were  re- 
viled in  terms  of  insolent  abuse;  it  is  not  surprising 
therefore,  that  they  should  have  attempted  to  check 
(what  appeared  to  them  to  be)  blasphemy  and  impiety. 
Although  these  new  expounders  of  the  scriptures  styled 
themselves  the  prophets  of  God,  yet  it  was  not  an  un- 
natural or  strange  belief  in  that  day,  that  they  should 
have  been  regarded  as  men  '  possessed  with  demons,' 
To  check  their  disorders,  banishment  was  deemed  the 
mildest  punishment.  Norton  was  sent  beyond  the  settle- 
ments, but  on  the  next  year  he  returned  in  defiance  of  the 
government.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  deportment  of 
Governor  Prince  to  Norton  was  domineering  and  arrogant, 
for  he  detested  schismatics,  and  hated  those  who  despised 
and  derided  '  human  learning.'  Yet  one  far  more  indulgent 
than  the  governor,  in  the  same  station  must  have  been  pos- 
sessed of  uncommon  self-command,  if  he  could  have  tolera- 
ted personal  insults,  and  tamely  have  suffered  himself  to  have 
been  called  '  a  liar,'  and  '  a  malicious  man,'  while  in  the 
very  exercise  of  his  high  authority  on  the  judgment  seat. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  QQ 

and  presiding  in  the  court.  Even  in  these  times  under 
the  system  of  toleration,  and  with  a  mitigated  penal  code, 
'  contempt  of  court,'  is  deemed  a  high  offence,  and  is 
punished  accordingly.  Still  it  is  best  that  the  hand  of 
power  should  fall  gently  on  all  those  who  pretend  (even 
if  it  be  nothing  but  pretence)  to  act  under  the  impulse  of 
religious  feeling  ;  and  the  Pope  of  Rome  when  he  dis- 
missed the  Quaker  without  injury,  who  even  within  the 
walls  of  the  Vatican  denounced  him  as  the  man  of  sin, 
and  as  the  Antichrist,  acted  wisely  by  choosing  to  con- 
sider this  effusion  of  zeal,  as  an  outpouring  of  insanity, 
and  intolerant  as  he  was  to  religious  heresy,  he  could  be 
charged  with  no  want  of  indulgence  to  human  infirmity. 

The  errors  of  honest  and  sincere  zealots  are  to  be 
excused,  not  punished,  unless  the  order  and  peace  of 
society  are  disturbed  to  such  a  degree  that  the  restraint 
of  the  offender  becomes  an  act  of  necessity. 

The  temper  of  the  age  must  also  be  considered  ;  stern, 
severe,  inexorable,  and  on  all  subjects  connected  with 
what  was  considered  religious  heresy,  inflexible  and 
vindictive  ;  the  feelings  of  the  puritans  may  be  imag- 
ined, when  a  fanaticism  more  phrenzied  than  their  own, 
suddenly  blazed  out  amongst  them,  pertinaciously  and  in- 
solently defying  the  magistrates  and  the  clergy,  the  power 
and  the  penalties  of  the  law.  The  fierce  spirit  of  Massachu- 
setts was  goaded  to  madness  ;  melancholy  and  disastrous 
were  the  efl'ects.  The  deeper  fanaticism  of  that  colony 
could  not  be  assuaged  short  of  human  victims,  and  the  peo- 
ple of  Plymouth  yielding  to  the  impulse,  caught  the  spirit 
of  their  neighbors  for  a  moment.  —  Fortunately  in  their 
phrenzy  they  did  not  thirst  for  blood  ;  they  soon  relented, 
and  the  laws  respecting  the  Quakers  which  were  passed 
at  the  session  of  the  court  commencing  in  June,  1659, 
were   of  a  milder  character.      It  is    true,  they  author- 


40 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

ized  the  executive  officers  to  seize  all  the  books  and 
writings  in  which  the  doctrines  and  creeds  of  the  Qua- 
kers were  contained,  for  persecution  had  already  done 
a  part  of  its  work,  by  turning  the  attention  of  the  people 
to  doctrines  attractive  from  novelty  at  least;  and  the 
court  say  '  Many  persons  are  greatly  corrupted  with  the 
Quakers'  doctrines,  by  reading  their  books,  writings,  or 
epistles,'  which  it  seems  were  industriously  distributed 
throughout  the  jurisdiction. 

As  some  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  colony  itself,  had 
embraced  these  odious  doctrines,  the  court  were  unwilling 
to  visit  them  with  the  whole  vengeance  of  the  law,  and  it 
was  enacted  that  a  proposition  should  be  made  to  such, 
that  if  they  would  promise  and  engage  '  to  remove  their 
dwellings  out  of  this  government  within  six  months  after 
this  present  court,  and  perform  it,'  that  no  fine  should  be 
enacted  of  them  ;  and  those  who  from  poverty  were  unable 
to  remove  were  to  be  assisted  at  the  public  charge. 

The  object  of  the  laws  now  seemed  not  so  much  to 
punish  schismatics,  as  to  prevent  schism.  For  the  purpose 
of  bringing  the  Quakers  to  a  sense  of  their  mistakes,  the 
laws  were  so  far  relaxed  as  to  permit  certain  persons  to 
attend  their  meetings,  '  to  endeavor  to  reduce  them  from 
the  error  of  their  ways;'  this  permission  was  given  to 
John  Smith  of  Barnstable,  Isaac  Robinson,  John  Chipman, 
and  John  Cooke  of  Plymouth,  '  or  any  two  of  them  to  at- 
tend the  said  meetings  for  the  ends  aforesaid  at  any  time 
betwixt  this  court  (June)  and  the  next  October  court.' 

The  government  were  not  aware  of  the  danger.  The 
fanaticism  of  a  new  sect  is  always  an  overmatch  for  that 
which  has  been  cooled  and  tempered  by  time.  Those 
who  feel  the  pride  of  having  discovered  new  truths  in 
religion,  cherish  a  conviction  of  their  infallibility  too 
strong  to  be  shaken  by  the  sober  arguments  of  men  more 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  4J[ 

dispassionate  and  less  violent ;  and  where  tlie  contest  is 
between  artificial  reasoning  and  excited  feeling,  the  en- 
thusiasm which  attends  the  last  is  too  powerful  for  the 
mere  deductions  of  logic,  or  the  subtilties  of  metaphysics. 
Strong  religious  feeling  is  in  the  moral,  what  the'  magnet 
is  in  the  physical  world,  it  finds  corresponding  sympathies 
and  attractions  in  every  heart,  and  to  every  heart  it  can 
impart  a  kindred  influence.  Of  what  consequence  then, 
is  all  the  technical  learning  of  scholastic  theology,  when 
this  powerful  agent  is  exerting  its  all-pervading  influence, 
and  verifying  the  words  of  the  scriptures,  '  the  race  is  not 
always  to  the  swift,  nor  the  battle  to  the  strong.' 

Isaac  Robinson,  a  son  of  the  Leyden  pastor,  an  ex- 
cellent and  sensible  man,  who  had  received  the  permission 
of  the  court  to  attend  these  meetings,  instead  of  convin- 
cing the  Quakers  of  their  errors,  became  self-convicted, 
embraced  many  of  their  doctrines,  and  consequently  ren- 
dered himself  so  obnoxious,  that  he  was  dismissed  from 
civil  employment,  and  exposed  to  much  censure  and  some 
indignity. 

The  government  of  Rhode  Island  discovered  on  this  un- 
pleasant occasion,  far  more  wisdom,  good  sense,  modera- 
tion, enlightened  philanthropy  ;  a  deeper  insight  into 
the  workings  of  the  heart,  and  a  more  profound  knowledge 
of  the  nature  of  man  than  either  of  the  colonial  govern- 
ments of  New  England. 

The  commissioners  of  the  united  colonies  at  their  an- 
nual meeting  in  Boston  in  September  1G57,  having  been 
informed  that  '  divers  Quakers  are  arrived  this  summer  at 
Rhode  Island,  and  entertained  there,  which  may  prove 
dangerous  to  the  colonies,  thought  meet  to  manifest  their 
minds  to  the  governor  there  as  follows.' 

Gent.  '  We  suppose  that  you  have  understood  that  the 
last  year  a  company  of  Quakers  arrived  at  Boston,  upon 

PART    II.  6 


42  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

no  other  account  than  to  disperse  their  pernicious  opin- 
ions, had  they  not  been  prevented  by  the  prudent  care  of 
that  government,  who  by  that  experience  they  had  of  them, 
being  sensible  of  the  danger  that  might  befall  the  christian 
religion  here  professed,  by  suffering  such  to  be  received 
or  continued  in  the  country,  presented  the  same  unto  the 
commissioners  at  their  meeting  at  Plymouth,  who  upon 
that  occasion  commended  it  to  the  general  courts  of  the 
united  colonies,  that  all  Quakers,  ranters,  and  such  noto- 
rious heretics  might  be  prohibited  coming  among  us,  and 
that  if  such  arise  from  amongst  ourselves,  speedy  care 
might  be  taken  to  remove  them  (and  as  we  are  informed) 
the  several  jurisdictions  have  made  provision  according- 
ly ;  but  it  is  by  experience  found  that  means  will  fall  short 
without  further  care,  by  reason  of  your  admission  and  re- 
ceiving of  such  from  whence  they  may  have  opportunity 
to  creep  in  amongst  us,  or  means  to  infuse  and  spread 
their  accursed  tenets  to  the  great  trouble  of  the  colonies, 
if  not  to   the    subversion  of  the  professed  in  them. 

Notwithstanding  any  care  that  hath  been  hitherto  taken 
to  prevent  the  same,  whereof  we  cannot  but  be  very  sen- 
sible, and  think  no  care  too  great  to  preserve  us  from  such 
a  pest,  the  contagion  whereof  (if  received)  within  your 
colony,  were  dangerous  Slc.  to  be  diffused  to  the  other 
by  means  of  the  intercourse,  especially  to  the  places  of 
trade  amongst  us  which  we  desire  may  be  with  safety  con- 
tinued between  us.  We  therefore  make  it  our  request, 
that  you,  as  the  rest  of  the  colonies  take  such  order  herein 
that  your  neighbors  may  be  freed  from  that  danger,  that 
you  remove  those  Quakers  that  have  been  received,  and 
for  the  future  prohibit  their  coming  amongst  you,  where- 
unto  the  rule  of  charity  to  yourselves  and  us,  (we  conceive) 
doth  oblige  you,  wherein  if  you  should,  we  hope  you  will 
not  be  wanting  ;  yet  we  could  not  but  signify  this  our  de- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  43 

sire,  and  further  declare  that  we  apprehend  that  it  will  be 
our  duty  seriously  to  consider  what  further  provision  God 
may  call  us  to  make  to  prevent  the  aforesaid  mischief,  and 
for  our  further  guidance  and  direction  herein,  we  desire 
you  to  impart  your  mind  and  resolution  to  the  general 
court  of  the  Massachusetts,  which  assembleth  the  four- 
teenth of  October  next.  We  have  not  further  to  trouble 
you  at  present,  but  to  assure  you  we  desire  to  continue 
your  loving  friends  and  neighbors,  the  commissioners  of 
the  united  colonies. 

'  Simon  Bradstreet,  President. 
Daniel.  I>enisojv, 
Thomas  Prence, 
John  Mason, 
John  Talcott, 
Theophilus  Eaton, 
•  Boston  September  12,  1657.  William  Leete.' 

Mr  Cudworth  one  of  the  commissioners  from  Plymouth 
dissented,  and  refused  to  affix  his  signature. 

For  people  making  much  profession  of  christian  humil- 
ity, this  communication  was  sufficiently  domineering  and 
arrogant.  Rhode  Island  was  an  independent  colony,  and 
not  a  member  of  the  confederacy,  under  no  obligations  of 
obedience  or  loyalty,  yet  their  course  was  prescribed,  un- 
der a  threat.  The  government  of  that  colony  however, 
deported  themselves  with  moderation  and  good  temper, 
and  presented  their  views  in  the  following  temperate  an- 
swer, addressed  to  the  general  court  of  Massachusetts. 

Much  Honored  Gentlkmen. — '  Please  you  to  under- 
stand that  there  hath  come  to  our  view,  a  letter  subscribed 
by  the  honored  gentlemen  commissioners  of  the  united 
colonies,  the  contents  whereof  are  a  request  concerning 
certain  people  called  Quakers,  come  among  us  lately,  &c. 

'  Our  desires  are,  in  all  things  possible  to  pursue  after 
and  keep  fair  and  loving  correspondence  and  intercourse 
with  all  the  colonies,  and  with  all  our  countrymen  in  New 


44  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

England  ;  and  to  that  purpose  we  have  endeavored  (and 
shall  still  endeavor)  to  answer  the  desires  and  requests 
from  all  parts  of  the  country  coming  unto  us,  in  all  just 
and  equal  returns,  to  which  end  the  colony  have  made 
seasonable  provision  to  preserve  a  just  and  equal  inter- 
course between  the  colonies  and  us,  by  giving  justice 
to  any  that  demand  it  among  us,  and  by  returning  such 
as  make  escapes  from  you  or  from  other  colonies,  being 
such  as  fly  from  the  hands  of  justice,  for  matters  of  crime, 
done  or  committed  amongst  you,  &c. 

'  And  as  concerning  these  Quakers  (so  called)  which  are 
now  among  us,  we  have  no  law  among  us  whereby  to  pun- 
ish any  for  only  declaring  by  words,  &c.  their  minds  and 
understandings  concerning  the  things  and  ways  of  God, 
as  to  salvation  and  an  eternal  condition.  And  we  more- 
over find,  that  in  those  places  where  these  people  afore- 
said in  this  colony,  are  most  of  all  suffered  to  declare 
themselves  freely  and  are  only  opposed  by  arguments  in 
discourse,  there  they  least  of  all  desire  to  come,  and  we 
are  informed  that  they  begin  to  loathe  this  place,  for  that 
they  are  not  opposed  by  the  civil  authority,  but  with  all  pa- 
tience and  meekness  are  suffered  to  say  over  their  pretended 
revelations  and  admonitions,  nor  are  they  like  or  able  to 
gain  many  here  to  their  way  ;  surely  we  find  that  they  de- 
light to  be  persecuted  by  civil  power,  and  when  they  are 
so,  they  are  like  to  gain  more  adherents  by  the  conceit  of 
their  patient  sufferings,  than  by  consent  to  their  perni- 
cious sayings.  And  yet  we  conceive  that  their  doctrines 
tend  to  very  absolute  cutting  down  and  overturning  rela- 
tions and  civil  government  among  men,  if  generally  re- 
ceived. But  as  to  the  damage  that  may  in  likelihood  ac- 
crue to  the  neighbor  colonies  by  their  being  here  enter- 
tained, we  conceive  it  will  not  prove  so  dangerous  (as 
else  it  might)  in  regard  of  the  course  taken  by  you  to 
send  them  away  out  of  the  country  as  they  come  among 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  45 

3'ou.  But  however,  at  present,  we  judge  it  requisite  (and 
do  intend)  to  commend  the  consideration  of  their  extrava- 
gant outgoings  unto  the  general  assembly  of  our  colony  in 
March  next,  where  we  hope  there  will  be  such  order  taken 
as  may  in  all  honest  and  conscientious  manner,  prevent  the 
bad  effects  of  their  doctrines  and  endeavors,  and  so  in  all 
courteous  and  loving  respects,  and  with  a  desire  of  all 
honest  and  fair  commerce  with  you  and  the  rest  of  our 
honored  and  beloved  countrymen,  we  rest, 

'  Yours  in  all  loving  respects  to  serve  you. 

*  From  Providence,  at  '  Benedict  Arnold,  President, 

the    court  of  trials  William  Baulston, 

held  for  the  colony,  Randall  Howlden, 

October  13,  1657.  Arthur  Fenner, 

William  Field.' 

'  To  the  much  honored,  the  General  Court  sitting  at 
Boston,  for  the  colony  of  Massachusetts.' 

The   commissioners  exasperated   by  the  obstinacy  and- 
pertinacity  of  the  Quakers  at  their  annual  meeting  at  Bos- 
ton   in   September,    1 658,  issued  to    the   several   general 
courts  of  the  respective  colonies  the  following  horrible 
recommendation. 

'  Whereas  there  is  an  accursed  and  pernicious  sect  of 
heretics  lately  risen,  up  in  the  world  who  are  commonly 
called  Quakers,  who  take  upon  them  to  be  immediately 
sent  of  God  and  infallibly  assisted  ;  who  do  speak  and  write 
blasphemous  things,  despising  government  and  the  order 
of  God  in  church  and  commonwealth,  speaking  evil  of  dig- 
nities, reproaching  and  reviling  magistrates  and  ministers 
of  the  gospel  ;  seeking  to  turn  the  people  from  the  faith, 
and  to  gain  proselytes  in  their  pernicious  ways ;  and 
whereas  the  several  jurisdictions  have  made  divers  laws  to 
prohibit  and  restrain  the  aforesaid  cursed  heretics  from 
coming  amongst  them,  yet,  notwithstanding  they  are  not 
deterred  thereby,  but  arrogantly  and  presumptuously  do 


46  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

press  into  several  of  the  jurisdictions,  and  there  vent  their 
pernicious  and  devilish  opinions,  which  being  permitted 
tends  manifestly  to  the  disturbance  of  our  peace;  —  the 
withdrawing  of  the  hearts  of  the  people  from  their  subjec- 
tion to  government,  and  so  in  issue  to  cause  division  and 
ruin  if  not  timely  prevented.  It  is  therefore  propounded 
and  seriously  commended  to  the  several  general  courts 
upon  the  considerations  aforesaid,  to  make  a  law,  that  all 
such  Quakers  formerly  convicted  and  punished  as  such, 
shall  (if  they  return  again)  be  imprisoned  forthwith,  ban- 
ished or  expelled  out  of  the  said  jurisdiction  under  pain 
of  death;  and  if  afterwards  they  presume  to  come  again 
into  that  jurisdiction,  then  to  be  put  to  death  as  presump- 
tuously incorrigible,  unless  they  shall  plainly  and  publicly 
renounce  their  cursed  opinions  ;  and  for  such  Quakers  as 
shall  come  into  any  jurisdiction  from  any  foreign  parts, 
or  such  as  shall  arise  within  the  same,  after  due  conviction 
that  either  he  or  she  is  of  that  cursed  sect  of  heretics,  they 
be  banished  under  pain  of  severe  corporal  punishment,  and 
if  they  return  again,  then  to  be  punished  accordingly  and 
banished  under  pain  of  death  ;  and  if  afterwards  they  shall 
yet  presume  to  come  again,  then  to  be  put  to  death  as 
aforesaid,  except  they  do  then  and  there  plainly  and  pub- 
licly renounce  their  said  cursed  opinions  and  devilish 
tenets. 

'  These  foregoing  conclusions  were   agreed  and    sub- 
scribed by  the  commissioners,  23d  September,  1658. 

'  John  Endicot,  President. 
Simon  Bradstreet, 
Thomas  Prence, 
John    Winthrop,  looking  at 
the  last  as  a  query  and  not  an 
act,  I  subscribe, 
John  Talcott, 
Francis  Newman, 
William  Leete.' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  47 

Mr  Winslow  one  of  the  commissioners  from  Plymouth 
refused  to  subscribe.  Mr  Cudworth  had  been  disphiced 
for  refusing  to  sanction  this  systern  of  persecution  in  the 
preceding  year,  but  Mr  Winslow  was  still  continued  in  his 
offices  and  eventually  became  the  governor  of  Plymouth. 
In  that  colony  there  seemed  after  a  few  years  to  be  a  re- 
vulsion in  the  popular  feeling,  and  Mr  Cudworth,  Mr 
Brown  and  Isaac  Robinson,  were  restored  to  favor.  The 
tragedy  at  Boston,  produced  a  deep  sympathy  for  the  suf- 
ferers, and  when  the  people  saw  the  Quakers  die  for  their 
faith,  they  could  not  resist  the  belief  that  they  were  sin- 
cere ;  but  as  yet,  the  public  mind  was  diseased,  although 
there  were  indications  of  returning  health. 

The  court  of  Plymouth  again  took  the  alarm,  and  in 
1660  passed  two  new  laws  against  the  Quakers.  By  a 
former  law  all  persons  had  been  required  to  give  notice  to 
the  several  constables  of  foreign  Quakers.  All  persons 
were  now  authorized  to  apprehend  such  Quakers,  and  to 
deliver  them  to  the  constables,  that  they  might  be  carried 
before  the  governor  or  some  magistrate.  And  to  prevent 
their  speedy  passage  from  place  to  place,  '  to  poison  the 
inhabitants  with  their  cursed  tenets.'  All  persons  were 
prohibited  from  supplying  them  with  horses,  on  pain  of 
forfeiture,  and  their  own  horses  were  also  made  liable  to 
forfeiture. 

It  was  also  enacted  at  this  court,  (June  10th,  16G0,) 
'  that  any  one  that  shall  bring  in  any  Quaker  or  ranter  by 
land  or  water  into  this  government,  viz.  by  being  a  guide 
to  them  or  any  otherwise,  shall  be  fined  to  the  use  of  the 
government  the  sum  of  £10  for  every  such  default.' 

It  was  also  enacted  that  if  the  Quakers  '  or  such  like 
vagabonds  shall  come  into  any  town  of  this  government, 
the  marshal  or  constable  shall  apprehend  him  or  them, 
and  upon  examination  so  appearing,  he  shall  whip  them 


43  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLOmf. 

or  cause  them  to  be  whipped  with  rods,  so  it  exceed  not 
fifteen  stripes.'  After  the  punishment  had  been  inflicted 
they  were  to  depart  from  the  jurisdiction  immediately, 
being  furnished  with  a  passport,  for  without  such  protec- 
tion they  would  have  been  liable  to  the  same  maltreatment 
from  every  individual  who  chose  to  inflict  it. 

But  a  provision  of  this  law  indicates  very  clearly  that 
the  Quakers  began  to  be  viewed  by  the  people  with  senti- 
ments more  favorable  and  indulgent,  and  that  a  feeling  of 
disgust  against  the  conduct  of  the  magistrates  was  very 
prevalent.  Even  the  executive  oflicers  began  to  flinch 
from  their  duty,  and  refused  to  become  even  the  innocent 
instruments  of  legal  cruelty.  This  provision  was  in  these 
words,  '  in  case  any  constable  of  this  jurisdiction  shall  be 
unwilling,  or  cannot  procure  any  to  inflict  the  punishment 
aforesaid,  that  then  they  shall  bring  such  persons  to  Ply- 
mouth to  the  under  marshal,  and  he  shall  inflict  it.' 

It  was  also  enacted  that  all  persons  permitting  the 
Quakers  to  hold  meetings  in  their  houses  on  conviction 
before  the  general  court,  '  should  be  publicly  whipt,  or 
pay  £5.' 

The  following  order  of  the  court  discovers  that  the 
Quakers  had  become  numerous,  and  were  not  only  perse- 
vering, but  rather  courted  persecution,  and  were  ambitious 
of  the  fame  of  martyrs,  and  willing  to  endure  much  suf- 
fering to  obtain  it. 

'  Whereas  there  is  a  constant  monthly  meeting  together 
of  the  Quakers  from  divers  places  in  great  numbers, 
which  is  very  oflfensive,  and  may  prove  greatly  prejudicial 
to  this  government,  and  inasmuch  as  the  most  constant 
place  for  such  meetings  is  at  Duxburrow,  this  court  have 
desired  and  appointed  Mr  Constant  Southworth  and 
William  Paybody  to  repair  to  such  their  meetings  together 
with  the  marshal  or  constable  of  the  town,  and  to  use 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  49 

their  best  endeavors  by  argument  and  discourse  to  con- 
vince or  hinder  them  ;  and  incase  the  place  of  their  meet- 
ing should  be  changed,  the  court  desires  the  above- 
named  or  any  other  meet  persons  to  attend  there  also.' 

During  the  fierce  disputes  which  were  engendered  in 
this  controversy,  Mr  Hatherly  and  Mr  Cudworth  were 
both  left  out  of  the  magistracy.  The  bigotry  of  the  times 
would  not  tolerate  the  most  moderate  toleration,  and  the 
places  of  these  wise  and  philanthropic  assistants  were 
supplied  at  the  election  in  June,  1658,  by  William  Brad- 
ford, the  son  of  the  late  governor,  and  Thomas  Hinckley 
of  Barnstable,  afterwards  governor.  Their  selection  at 
this  time  indicates  with  sufficient  precision  the  temper 
and  character  of  their  religious  opinions. 

William  Collier,  John  Alden,  Thomas  Willett,  Josias 
Winslow,  and  Thomas  Southworth,  the  other  assistants, 
Were  reelected. 

In  that  year  the  deputies  from  Sandwich  and  Bridge- 
water  were  reelected,  and  also  Mr  Finney  from  Plymouth, 
Mr  Paybody  from  Duxbury,  Mr  Edmund  Hawes  from  Yar- 
mouth, Mr  Eames  from  Marshfield,  Mr  Paine  from  Reho- 
both,  and  Mr  Higgins  from  Eastham. 

John  Howland  and  Nathaniel  Warren  were  chosen  in 
Plymouth,  Constant  Southworth  in  Duxbury,  Pvobert  Stud- 
son  and  Isaac  Chettenden  in  Scituate,  William  Parker 
and  James  Walker  in  Taunton,  Thomas  Hawes  in  Yar- 
mouth, Nathaniel  Bacon  in  Barnstable,  Anthony  Snow  in 
Marshfield,  Thomas  Cooper  in  Rehoboth,  and  Josias  Cooke 
in  Eastham. 

In  1G59,  all  the  assistants  were  reelected,  and  were 
continued  without  change  to  1G65. 

Pbobert  Finney  and  Nathaniel  Warren  were  reelected, 
and  John  Dunham,  sen.,  and  Ephraim  Morton  were  re- 
elected in  Plymouth.     The  deputies  from  Duxbury   were 

PART    II.  7 


50  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

reelected  ;  Robert  Studson  was  reelected  from  Scituate, 
and  Capt.  James  Cudworth.  [The  bigotry  of  the  court 
would  not  tolerate  even  a  popular  election,  and  Mr  Cud- 
worth  was  set  aside  without  ceremony,  and  refused  a  seat, 
as  well  as  James  Skiff  elected  from  Sandwich.  John 
Vincent  was  the  other  member  from  Sandwich.]  James 
Walker  was  reelected,  and  Richard  Williams  elected  in 
Taunton  ;  in  Yarmouth,  Thomas  Hawes  reelected,  An- 
thony Thatcher  elected  ;  in  Barnstable,  Nathaniel  Bacon 
was  reelected,  and  Henry  Cobb  elected  ;  in  Marshfield, 
Anthony  Snow  was  reelected  and  Josias  Winslow  elected  ; 
in  Rehobolh,' Stephen  Paine  was  reelected  and  William 
Sabin  elected  ;  in  Eastham,  Josias  Cooke  was  reelected, 
and  John  Doane  elected  ;  John  Willis  was  reelected  in 
Bridgewater. 

Henry  Dunster,  the  first  president  of  Harvard  College, 
died  this  year  at  Scituate.  His  successor  in  the  presidency 
was  Charles  Chauncy,  the  second  pastor  of  Scituate. 
President  Dunster  was  a  man  of  learning  and  of  good  in- 
tentions, but  violent  and  intolerant,  although  a  victim 
himself  to  intolerance,  (having  been  dismissed  from  his 
office  for  entertaining  anabaptist  principles,)  his  bigotry 
was  not  cured,  and  his  dislike  and  hatred  of  the  Quakers 
was  unrelenting  and  vindictive. 

In  1660,  the  deputies  froniDuxbury,  Marshfield,  Bridge- 
water  and  Barnstable,  were  reelected.  Mr  Dunham,  Mr 
Finney,  and  Ephraim  Morton,  were  reelected,  and  Ma- 
nasseh  Kempton  elected  in  Plymouth  ;  in  Scituate, 
Robert  Studson  was  reelected  and  James  Torry  elect- 
ed ;  in  Taunton,  James  Walker  was  reelected,  and  James 
Wyat  elected  ;  in  Sandwich,  Thomas  Tupper  and  Thomas 
Burgess  were  elected  ;  in  Eastham,  Richard  Higgins  and 
Nathaniel  Mayo  were  elected  ;  in  Rehoboth,  William 
Sabin  was  reelected  and  Peter  Hunt  elected. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  51 

A  special  court  having  been  called  in  October,  all  the 
deputies  were  reelected  excepting  Mr  Mayo,  of  Eastham, 
whose  place  was  supplied  by  Josias  Cooke. 

In  1661,  the  deputies  from  Duxbury,  Scituate,  Taunton, 
Yarmouth,  Barnstable,  and  Rehoboth,  were  reelected  ;  Mr 
Dunham  and  Ephraim  Morton  were  reelected,  and  John 
Howland  and  Nathaniel  Warren  elected  in  Plymouth  ;  in 
Sandwich,  Mr  Burgess  was  reelected  and  John  Vincent 
elected  ;  in  Marshfield,  Mr  Snow  was  reelected  and  An- 
thony Eames  elected;  in  Eastham, Mr  Cooke  was  reelected 
and  John  Freeman  elected ;  in  Bridgewater,  William 
Brett  was  elected. 

At  the  court  which  assembled  in  June,  a  loyal  declara- 
tion was  made  in  favor  of  King  Charles  II,  who  had  been 
restored  to  the  throne  of  his  ancestors.  '  Whereas  we  are 
certainly  informed  that  it  hath  pleased  God  to  establish  our 
sovereign  lord  king  Charles  the  Second  in  the  enjoyment 
of  his  undoubted  right  to  the  crowns  of  England,  Scot- 
land, France,  and  Ireland,  and  is  so  declared  and  owned 
by  his  good  subjects  of  these  kingdoms, 

'  We,  therefore,  his  majesty's  loyal  subjects,  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  jurisdiction  of  New  Plymouth,  do  hereby  de- 
clare our  free  and  ready  concurrence  with  such  other  of 
his  majesty's  subjects,  and  to  his  said  majesty,  his  heirs, 
and  successors,  we  do  most  humbly  and  faithfully  submit 
and  oblige  ourselves  forever.     God  save  the  king.' 

This  humble  and  loyal  declaration  was  followed  by  a 
mandamus  directed  to  the  several  governors  of  New  Eng- 
land, which  conveys  a  severe  reproof,  virtual  but  not 
literal,  on  the  part  of  the  king,  in  which  Plymouth  was 
included  as  well  as  the  others. 

Whatever  might  have  been  the  demerits  of  king 
Charles,  the  Quakers  have  no  cause  to  reproBatehis  mem- 
ory.    For  them  he  always  cherished  the  most  kindly  feel- 


52  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

ings,  and  his  power  was  often  exerted  for  their  relief.  He 
could  overlook  and  neglect  many  of  his  own  most  faithful 
adherents,  but  his  patronage  of  William  Penn  was  not 
only  generous  but  magnificent. 

The  mandamus  was  directed,  '  to  our  trusty  and  well 
beloved  John  Endicot,  Esq.  and  to  all  and  every  other 
the  governor  or  governors  of  our  plantations  of  New- 
England,  and  of  all  the  colonies  thereunto  belonging, 
that  now  are,  or  hereafter  shall  be,  and  to  all  and  every 
the  ministers  and  officers  of  our  said  plantations  and 
<iolonies  whatsoever,  within  the  continent  of  New  England,' 
and  was  in  these  words  :  — 
'  Charles  R. 

'  Trusty  and  well  beloved, —  We  greet  you  well.  Hav- 
ing been  informed  that  several  of  our  subjects  amongst 
you  called  Quakers,  have  been,  and  are  imprisoned  by  you, 
whereof  some  of  them  have  been  executed,  and  others, 
(as  hath  been  represented  unto  us,)  are  in  danger  to  un- 
dergo the  like  ;  we  have  thought  fit  to  signify  our  pleasure 
in  that  behalf,  for  the  future  ;  and  do  hereby  require  that 
if  there  be  any  of  those  people  called  Quakers  amongst 
you  now  already  condemned  to  suffer  death,  or  other  cor- 
poral punishment,  or  that  are  imprisoned,  and  obnoxious 
to  the  like  condemnation,  you  are  to  forbear  to  proceed 
any  farther  therein  ;  but  that  you  forthwith  send  the  said 
persons  (whether  condemned  or  imprisoned,)  over  to  this 
our  kingdom  of  England,  together  with  the  respective 
crimes  or  oflfences  laid  to  their  charge,  to  the  end  that 
such  course  may  be  taken  with  them  here,  as  shall  be 
agreeable  to  our  laws,  and  their  demerits ;  and  for  so 
doing,  these  our  letters  shall  be  your  sufficient  warrant 
and  discharg^.  Given  at  our  Court  at  Whitehall,  the  9th 
day  of  September,  1G61,  in  the  thirteenth  year  of  our 
reign.  By  his  majesty's  command, 

'  William  Morris.' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

53 

The  royal  interference  probably  mitigated  the  proceed- 
ings against  the  Quakers.  In  Plymouth  the  most  obnox- 
ious laws  were  repealed,  and  there  appears  no  trace  of 
any  subsequent  persecution.  Public  prejudice  for  some 
time  prevailed  so  much,  as  to  continue  the  exclusion  of 
those  from  the  public  councils  who  had  been  so  bold  as 
to  encounter  it ;  but  on  the  accession  of  Governor  Josias 
Winslow,  they  were  restored  to  the  public  honors,  and 
continued  long  to  reef ive  the  strongest  proofs  of  public 
confidence. 

So  terminated  in  Plymouth  colony  the  persecution  of 
the  Quakers,  who,  when  unmolested  by  penal  laws,  became 
the  most  peaceful,  industrious,  and  moral,  of  all  the  re- 
ligious sects.* 

The  colony  during  this  year  sold  for  £400  sterling  their  Kenne- 
lands  on  Kennebeck  river  to  Antipas  Boyes,  Edward  go^''^*"^^ 
Tyng,  Thomas  Brattle,  and  John  Winslow,  and  they 
originated  the  celebrated  Plymouth  company.  In  subse- 
quent times  this  grant  from  being  ill  defined  in  its  terms, 
was  the  occasion  of  much  difficulty,  which  almost  termi- 
nated in  a  serious  rebellion. 

Mr  John  Brown  who  had  frequently  been  an   assistant     ,^^„ 

'  •'     _  1662. 

in  the  government,  having  been  elected  in  1630,  and  con-  Death  of 

tinned  by  successive   elections  to  1656,  died  this   year  at  3°'^"^^,^ 

his  residence  in  Rehoboth,  (afterwards  Swansey.)     While 

travelling  in    Holland  he  had  formed  a  strong  attachment 

to  Robinson  and  the  Leyden  church,  and  after  their  emi- 

*  Mr  William  Paddy,  who  had  been  a  distinguished  person  in  the  colony, 
whose  name  stood  at  the  head  of  the  first  list  of  deputies  from  the  town  of 
Plymouth  chosen  in  1(539,  and  who  was  also  a  deacon  of  the  church,  a  man  of 
courteous  manners  and  great  wealth,  died  at  Boston  in  1653,  to  which  place  he 
had  removed  in  1651. 

Ralph  Partridge,  the  learned  and  excellent  minister  of  Duxbury,  also  died 
at  a  mature  age  in  the  same  year. 


54 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 


gration  to  America  he  resolved  to  join  them.  He  settled 
at  Taunton,  and  was  an  early  proprietor  of  that  ancient 
town.  He  afterwards  removed  to  that  part  of  Swan- 
sey  called  Wannamoiset,  near  Rehoboth,  and  within  its 
jurisdiction,  of  which  he  was  an  early  proprietor.  He 
was  a  man  of  great  piety,  highly  esteemed  in  the  colony, 
and  being  so  near  the  Indians,  by  whom  he  was  greatly 
regarded,  his  death  was  a  serious  loss.*  He  had  also  been 
a  commissioner  of  the  United  Colonies  from  1644  to  1655. 
The  deputies  of  this  year  from  Plymouth  were  John 
Dunham,  Ephraim  Morton,  Robert  Finney  and  John  jMor- 
ton  ;  Duxbury,  Constant  Southworth,  William  Paybody  ; 
Scituate,  James  Torrey,  Robert  Studson  ;  Sandwich, 
Thomas  Burgess,  William  Bassett ;  Taunton,  James  Wyat, 
James  Walker  ;  Barnstable,  Henry  Cobb,  Nathaniel 
Bacon ;  Yarmouth,  Thomas  Hawes,  Richard  Sears  ;  East- 
ham,  John  Freeman,  Josias  Cooke  ;  JNIarshfield,  Peregrine 
White,  Mark  Fames  ;  Rehoboth,  Peter  Hunt,  Henry 
Smith  ;  Bridgewater,  William  Brett. 
1(5(33  Samuel  Newman  the  learned  minister  of  Rehoboth,  died 

at  his  residence  at  Seekonk. 

The  deputies  from  Duxbury,  Eastham,  and  Bridgewater, 
were  reelected.  In  Plymouth,  Mr  Finney  and  Ephraim 
Morton  were  reelected,  and  John  Howland  and  Nathaniel 
Warren  elected  ;  Mr  Torrey  was  reelected  in  Scituate, 
and  Isaac  Buck  elected  ;  in  Taunton,  Mr  Wyat  and  Mr 
Walker  were  both  elected,  but  Mr  Walker  was  set  aside, 
as  was   Peregrine  White  in  Marshfield  ;  Mr   Fames  was 

*  Dorothy,  wife  of  the  first  John  Brown,  died  in  1674.  His  eldest  son  John 
Brown,  died  before  him  in  the  same  year.  His  other  son  James  Brown,  was 
afterwards  in  the  magistracy.  His  grandson,  John  Brown,  became  useful  and 
eminent.  In  16S5,  he  was  one  of  the  first  associate  justices  of  the  Common 
Pleas  in  the  county  of  Bristol.  In  1699,  during  the  administration  of  Lord 
Bellamont,  under  a  new  arrangement  of  that  court  he  was  again  appointed  to 
that  office  with  John  Saffin,  Thomas  Leonard,  and  Nicholas  Peck. 


1G64. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  55 

reelected;  Mr  Bacon  was  reelected  in  Barnstable,  and 
John  Chlpman  was  elected  ;  in  Rehoboth,  Mr  Hunt  was 
reelected,  and  Stephen  Paine  elected  ;  in  Sandwich, 
Thomas  Tupper  and  James  Skiff,  and  in  Yarmouth,  An- 
thony Thacher  and  Yelverton  Crow  were  elected. 

The  deputies  from  Scituate,  Barnstable,  Rehoboth,  and 
Eastham,  were  reelected.  The  deputies  from  Plymouth 
were  reelected,  excepting  Mr  Howland,  who  was  replaced 
by  John  Dunham.  Mr  Southworth  was  reelected  alone 
from  Duxbury,  and  Mr  Brett  was  reelected,  and  John 
Willis  elected  from  Bridgewater ;  Mr  Skiff  was  reelected 
in  Sandwich  with  Richard  Bourne  ;  Mr  Eames  was  re- 
elected, and  Anthony  Snow  elected  in  Marshfield;  in 
Taunton,  William  Harvey  and  Richard  Williams  were 
elected,  and  in  Yarmouth,  Edward  Sturges  and  James 
Matthewes. 

Colonel  Richard  Nicholls,  Sir  Robert  Carr,  George 
Cartwright.  Esq.,  and  Samuel  Maverick,  Esq.,  royal  com- 
missioners, arrived  at  Boston.  They  were  designated  to 
receive  the  surrender  of  New  Amsterdam,  (now  New 
York)  from  the  Dutch,  of  which,  province  Nicholls  was 
appointed  the  first  English  governor.  They  were  also 
empowered  to  settle  and  define  the  boundaries  between 
the  different  provinces,  particularly  between  Plymouth 
and  Rhode  Island,  as  much  dispute  had  arisen. 

King  Charles  H.,  caused  the  following  letter  to  be  ad- 
dressed to  the  government  of  New  Plymouth. 

'  To  our  trusty  and  well  beloved,  our  governor  and 
council  of  New  Plymouth,  greeting. — Charles  Rex. 

'  Trusty  and  well  beloved,  w^e  greet  you  well ;  we  need 
not  enlarge  upon  our  care  of,  and  affection  to  that  our 
plantation  of  New  Plymouth,  when  we  give  you  such  a 
testimony  and  manifestation  of  it,  in  the  sending  of  those 
gentlemen,  persons  wrell  known  unto  us,  and  deserving 


56  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

from  us,  our  trusty  and  well  beloved  Colonel  Richard 
Nicholls,  Sir  Robert  Carr,  knight,  George  Cartwright, 
Esq.,  and  Samuel  Maverick,  Esq.,  our  commissioners  to 
visit  you,  and  others  our  plantations  in  those  parts  of  New 
England,  and  to  give  us  a  full  and  particular  information 
and  account  of  your  present  state  and  condition,  and  how 
the  same  may  be  advanced  and  improved  by  any  further 
acts  of  grace  and  favor  from  us  toward  you  ;  and  that  both 
you  and  all  the  world  may  know  and  take  notice,  that  we 
take  you  into  our  immediate  protection,  and  will  no  more 
suffer  you  to  be  oppressed  or  injured  by  any  foreign  pow- 
er, or  ill  neighbors,  than  we  would  suffer  our  other  sub- 
jects that  live  upon  the  same  continent  with  us,  to  be  so 
injured  and  oppressed.  And  as  our  care  and  protection 
will  we  doubt  not,  be  sufficient  with  God's  blessing  to 
defend  you  from  foreign  force,  so  our  care  and  circum- 
spection is,  no  less,  that  you  may  live  in  peace  amongst 
yourselves,  and  with  those  our  other  subjects  who  have 
planted  themselves  in  your  neighbor  colonies,  with  that 
justice,  affection,  and  brotherly  love,  which  becomes  sub- 
jects born  under  the  same  prince,  and  in  the  same  country, 
and  of  the  same  faith  and  hope  in  the  mercies  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  And  to  the  end  there  may  be  no  con- 
tentions and  differences  between  you,  in  respect  of  the 
bounds  and  jurisdiction  of  your  several  colonies  ;  the 
hearing  and  determining  whereof,  we  have  referred  to  our 
commissioners,  as  the  riglit  appears  by  clear  evidence  and 
testimony  before  them,  or  that  they  can  settle  it  by  your 
mutual  consent  and  agreement ;  otherwise,  in  cases  of 
difficulty,  they  shall  present  the  same  to  us,  who  will  de- 
termine according  to  our  own  wisdom  and  justice.  The 
address  you  formerly  made  to  us,  gave  us  so  good  satis- 
faction of  your  duty,  loyalty,  and  affection  to  us,  that  we 
have  not  the  least  doubt  that  you  will  receive  those  com- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  57 

missioners  in  such  manner  as  becomes  you,  and  as  may 
manifest  your  respect  and  aflection  towards  us,  from 
whom  they  are  sent.  They  will  let  you  know  the  resolu- 
tion we  have  to  preserve  all  your  liberties  arid  privileges, 
both  ecclesiastical  and  civil,  without  the  least  violation  ; 
which  we  presume  will  dispose  you  to  manifest  by  all  ways 
in  your  power,  loyalty  and  atfection  to  us,  that  all  the 
world  may  know  that  you  do  look  upon  yourselves  as 
being  as  much  our  subjects,  and  living  under  the  same 
obedience  under  us,  as  if  you  continued  in  your  natural 
country.     And  so  we  bid  you  farewell. 

'Given  at  our  court,  at  Whitehall,  April  23d,  1664,  in 
the  sixteenth  year  of  our  reign. 

'  By  his  Majesty's  special  command, 

'  Henry  Bennet.' 

'  The  commissioners  were  empowered  to  visit  the  seve- 
ral colonies  of  New  England,  to  hear  and  determine 
complaints  and  appeals,  in  matters  civil,  military,  and 
criminal ;  and  to  provide  for  the  peace  and  security  of  the 
country,  according  to  their  good  and  sound  discretion, 
and  to  such  instructions  as  they  should  receive  from  the 
king.' 

After  they  had  received  the  submission  of  New  Am- 
sterdam, (now  New  York)  on  the  27th  of  August,  and  of 
Fort  Orange,  (now  Albany)  on  the  24th  of  September,  the 
forts  in  both  places  having  been  surrendered  by  Governor 
Stuyvesant,  they  proceeded  to  execute  their  wide  com- 
mission in  the  colonies  ;  and  executed  it  in  such  a  manner 
that  the  ire  of  '  the  Massachusetts'  was  excited,  and  they 
not  only  contended  for  their  chartered  rights  manfully  and 
patriotically,  but  with  too  little  deference  to  the  commis- 
sioners to  whom  the  royal  authority  had  been  delegated  ; 
in  short,  they  were  pugnacious,  and  they  were  maligned 
and  perhaps  misrepresented,  by  two  of  the  commissioners, 

PART    II.  8 


58  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Cartwright  and  Maverick,  who  cherished  a  bitter  dislike  to 
them.  Plymouth  received  more  favor.  The  commission- 
ei-s  say  in  the  report  which  they  made  to  the  king  of  their 
proceedings,  that  but  'one  plaint'  was  made  to  them  at 
Plymouth,  '  the  governor  would  not  let  a  man  enjoy  a 
farm  of  four  miles  square,  which  he  had  bought  of  an 
Indian.'  That  v,^ithin  this  colony  no  complaint  should 
have  been  preferred  except  one  against  the  governor  for 
exercising  his  power  to  prevent  a  great  abuse  is  almost 
incredible,  and  discovers  'a  confidence  in  the  local 
government  of  this  little  jurisdiction,  which  has  never 
been  yielded  to  any  government  before  or  since,  and 
clearly  indicates  the  high  moral  culture  and  pure  dis- 
interestedness of  all  the  inhabitants,  who  had  not  yet 
began  to  deteriorate  from  that  high  and  virtuous  character 
for  which  the  founders  of  the  colony  were  so  much  dis- 
tinguished. 

So  favorable  was  the    impression   which    was   made  on 
the    royal    mind    by  this   report,    that    some   time    after, 
namely,  in  1G66,  the  king  addressed  the  following  letter  to 
the  colony. 
'Charles  R. 

'  Trusty  and  well  beloved,  we  greet  you  well.  Having 
received  so  full  and  satisfactory  account  from  our  com- 
missioners, both  of  the  good  reception  you  have  given 
them,  and  also  of  your  dutifulness  and  obedience  to  us, 
we  cannot  but  let  you  know  how  much  we  are  pleased 
therewith  ;  judging  that  respect  of  yours  towards  our  offi- 
cers, to  be  true  and  natural  fruit,  which  demonstrates  what 
fidelity  and  affection  towards  us  is  rooted  in  your  hearts. 
And  although  your  carriage  of  itself  most  justly  deserve 
our  praise  and  approbation,  yet  it  seems  to  be  set  off  with 
more  lustre,  by  the  contrary  deportment  of  the  colony  of 
Massachusetts,  as  if,  by  their  refractoriness  they  had  de- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  59 

"signed  to  recommend  and  heighten  the  merit  of  your  com- 
pliance with  our  directions,  for  the  peaceable  and  good 
government  of  our  subjects  in  those  parts.  You  may 
therefore  assure  yourselves,  that  we  shall  never  be  un- 
mindful of  this  your  loyal  and  dutiful  behavior,  but  shall 
upon  all  occasions  take  notice  of  it  to  your  advantage  ; 
promising  you  our  constant  protection  and  royal  favor,  in 
all  things  that  may  concern  your  safety,  peace,  and  wel- 
fare.    And  so  we  bid  you  farewell. 

'  Given  at  our  court  at  Whitehall,  the  10th  day  of  April, 
1666,  in  the  eighteenth  year  of  our  reign. 
'  By  his  Majesty's  command, 

'  William  Morris.' 
Such  was  the  kindly  intercourse  between  the  '  merry 
monarch'  and  his  loving  subjects  of  New  Plymouth. 
Addresses  on  one  side  filled  with  professions  of  loyalty 
and  submission,  on  the  other,  letters  filled  with  promises  of 
protection  and  favor.  The  loyalty  of  the  colonists  would 
never  have  led  them  to  endure  martyrdom  to  sustain  the 
crown,  and  the  protection  which  was  promised  was  never 
received  ;  the  colonists  wisely  relied  on  themselves  ;  and 
their  humble  interest  at  court  was  never  sufficient  to 
obtain  the  only  favor  they  sought,  a  royal  charter.  Des- 
titute of  a  charter,  they  were  left  a  prey  in  a  succeeding 
reign  to  the  ambition  of  Massachusetts,  under  whose 
dominion  their  identity  was  lost,  and  that  independence 
which  by  their  own  arms  they  had  won,  and  sustained  by 
their  prowess,  was  taken  from  them  without  ceremony, 
reluctant  as  they  were  to  yield  it.  However  it  would  be 
as  idle  now  to  complain  of  this,  as  it  would  be  in  an  in- 
habitant of  the  ancient  colony  of  New  Haven  to  complain 
of  its  junction  with  CV/nnecticut,  and  perhaps  the  only 
legitimate  cause  of  regret  is,  that  the  same  charter  which 
placed  Plymouth  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts. 


60  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

had  not  included  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island.  The 
commissioners  in  their  report  represent  the  colony  as  con- 
taining twelve  small  towns,  one  saw  mill  for  boards,  one 
bloomery  for  iron,  neither  good  river  nor  good  harbor,  nor 
any  place  of  strength.' 
1665.  A  single  change  was  made  this  year  in  the  magistracy, 
which  was  by  electing  James  Brown  of  Swansey,  the  son 
of  the  late  assistant  John  Brown,  in  the  place  of  Thomas 
Willet  of  Swansey.  Thomas  Clark  and  John  Pynchon 
had  been  deputed  by  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts 
to  attend  the  royal  commissioners  in  their  expedition  to 
New  York  ;  Governor  Winthrop  and  several  other  magis- 
trates and  gentlemen  went  from  Connecticut,  and  Captain 
Thomas  Willet  from  Plymouth,  and  '  greatly  recommended 
himself  to  the  commissioners  by  his  activity  and  intelli- 
gence ; '  Colonel  Nichols  (says  Judge  Davis  in  a  note  to 
the  memorial)  in  a  letter  to  Governor  Prince  written  from 
New  York,  the  spring  after  the  reduction  of  the  Dutch 
settlements,  requests  that  Captain  Willet  may  have  such 
dispensation  from  his  official  engagements  in  Plymouth 
colony,  as  to  be  at  liberty  to  assist  in  the  modelling  and 
reducing  the  affairs,  in  those  settlements,  into  good  Eng- 
lish. He  remarks  that  Mr  Willet  was  more  acquainted 
with  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  Dutch,  than  any 
gentleman  in  the  country,  and  that  his  conversation  was 
very  acceptable  to  them.' 

W^illet  was  one  of  the  last  of  the  Leyden  company,  and 
arrived  at  Plymouth  about  the  year  1630.  He  was  then  a 
very  young  man,  and  probably  almost  all  his  life  had  been 
spent  amongst  the  Dutch,  which  circumstance  gave  him 
his  peculiar  knowledge  of  their  habits,  usages,  and  the  use 
of  their  language,  and  made  him  'so  acceptable'  to  them. 
After  the  English  government  was  established,  he  was 
elected  the    first  mayor  of  the  city  of  New  York,  and 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY  61 

probably  continued  to  reside  there.  He  did  not  dispose 
of  his  plantation  in  Swansey  until  many  years  after,  and 
in  the  subsequent  Indian  war  he  still  owned  it;  it  was  the 
scene  of  the  tragical  death  of  his  son  Hezekiah  Willet  ■ 
which  will  be  related  hereafter.  The  absence  of  Mr 
Willet  induced  the  colonists  to  supply  the  vacancy  in  the 
bench  of  assistants  with  Mr  Brown. 

The  deputies  from  Scituate,  Taunton,  Sandwich,  Barn- 
stable, Marshfield,  and  Rehoboth,  were  reelected.  Ply- 
mouth was  restricted  to  two,  and  reelected  Nathaniel 
Warren  and  Ephraim  Morton ;  Duxbury  reelected  Mr 
Southworth  and  elected  Josias  Standish  ;  Yarmouth 
elected  Anthony  Thacher  and  Edmund  Hawes  ;  John  Free- 
man was  reelected  and  Richard  Higgins  elected  in  East- 
ham  ;  B;-idgewater  sent  Mr  Brett  alone,  and  Dartmouth 
for  the  first  time  was  represented  by  John  Russell. 

At  the  general  court  of  magistrates  and  deputies  assem- 
bled at  Plymouth  in  October,  Governor  Prence  having 
resided  at  Eastham,  and  it  being  so  distant,  '  the  country 
saw  reason  to  desire  and  request  his  removal  into  the  town 
of  Plymouth,  for  the  more  convenient  administration  of 
justice,  and  that  by  God's  providence  he  is  now  removed 
to  his  great  inconvenience  and  detriment.'  The  court 
therefore  ordered  that  his  salary  should  be  £50  per  annum. 
And  as  he  resided  in  a  place  which  had  been  purchased 
by  the  colony  '  for  that  end,'  it  was  further  ordered  in 
case  of  his  decease,  his  family  should  be  permitted  to 
remain  in  the  place  for  a  year  ;  or  if  he  should  not  be 
reelected,  he  should  be  at  liberty  to  remain  in  the  govern- 
ment house  a  year. 

With  respect  to  the  assistants,  it  was  enacted  that  the 
old  magistrates  should  be  allowed  £10  per  annum,  and 
that  '  the  charge  of  their  table  should  be  defrayed  ;'  and 
that  those  who  were  newly  elected  should  be  allowed  the 


62  .  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

charge  of  tfieir  table  only.     It  would  seem  that  heretofore 
the  assistants  had  been  allowed  no  salary. 

In  July,  1667,  £50  annual  salary  was  allowed  to  all  the 
assistants,  and  the  charge  of  their  table. 

It  was  also  enacted  that  such  as  were  chosen  to  this 
office  and  should  refuse  to  serve,  should  be  fined  £5  for 
the  use  of  the  colony. 

The  royal  commissioners  having  made  a  special  request 
to  the  court  that  a  grant  of  land  might  be  made  to  Pere- 
grine White,  '  in  respect  that  he  was  the  first  of  the  Eng- 
lish born  in  these  parts,'  the  court  granted  him  two 
hundred  acres  in  Bridgewater  adjoining  Massachusetts. 

The  court  recalled  the  commissions  which  they  had 
granted  the  year  before  for  the  purchase  of  lands  for  the 
country,  and  declared  them  '  of  no  efifect  as  to  future  im- 
provement ;'  and  in  the  next  year  they  ordered  '  that  from 
henceforth  no  more  lands  be  granted  to  persons  without 
particular  townships  for  the  term  of  seven  years  ; '  and 
further  ordered  that  the  boundaries  between  the  lands  of 
the  English  should  be  ascertained  and  determined  by 
mutual  agreement. 

John  Freeman  was  elected  an  assistant  in  the  place  of 
Mr  Collier,  and  John  Alden  was  the  first  assistant  or  dep- 
uty governor.  The  other  assistants  were  reelected.  Barn- 
stable reelected  the  deputies  of  the  preceding  year.  In 
Plymouth,  Ephraim  Morton  was  reelected,  and  John  How- 
land  elected  deputies  ;  in  Duxborough  Mr  Southworth  was 
reelected  with  Christopher  Wadsworth  ;  Robert  Studson 
and  Isaac  Chettenden,  were  elected  in  Scituate  ;  Mr  Skiff 
was  reelected,  and  Richard  Bourne  elected,  in  Sandwich  ;  in 
Taunton  William  Harvey  was  reelected,  and  James  Walker 
elected  ;  in  Yarmouth,  Edward  Sturges  and  Yelverton 
Crow  were  elected  ;  in  Marshfield,  Mr  Eames  was  reelect- 
ed and  John  Bourne  elected  ;  in  Rehoboth,  Stephen  Paine 


1666. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  63 

was  reelected,  and  James  Brown  elected  ;  John  Free- 
man was  reelected,  and  Josias  Cooke  elected  in  Eastham ; 
John  Willis  was  elected  in  Bridgevvater,  and  John  Cooke 
in  Dartmouth, 

Timothy  Hatherly  the  founder  of  Scituate,  died  there  Death  of 
this  year.  Air  Hatherly  was  an  eminent  English  merchant,  eriy. 
and  had  been  one  of  the  most  zealous  of  the  adventurers 
in  forwarding  the  colony.  He  came  over  in  the  Anne,  in 
1623,  but  disliking  the  country  and  sufierihg  some  loss 
from  fire  he  returned  to  England.  He  however  became 
interested  in  a  large  tract  of  land  at  Scituate,  to  which 
place  he  sent  his  agent  and  several  servants,  and  came 
over  again  in  1632,  and  settled  at  Scituate  of  which  place 
he  may  be  considered  the  founder.  He  was  elected  an 
assistant  in  1636,  and  was  continued  in  that  office  by  suc- 
cessive elections  until  165S,  when  the  people  under  the 
influence  of  infatuated  bigotry  left  him  out  of  the  govern- 
ment, as  his  principles  were  tolerant.  In  1639  he  was  the 
treasurer  of  the  colony  and  was  sometimes  a  commissioner 
of  the  United  Colonies.  Mr  Hatherly  was  a  gentleman 
of  great  integrity,  intelligence  and  piety,  and  extremely 
useful  in  all  the  transactions  of  the  colony.  His  estate 
was  large,  and  his  means  of  doing  good  ample.* 

Nathaniel  Bacon  was  elected  an  assistant  in  the  place  iqq-j_ 
of  James  Brown.  No  other  change  was  made  in  the 
magistracy.  Mr  Brown  was  opposed  to  the  adoption  of 
rigorous  measures  against  the  Quakers,  cherishing  prin- 
ciples similar  to  his  father's,  and  the  popular  indignation 
which  had  not  spared  his  father  or  Mr  Hatherly,  Mr  Cud- 
worth  and  Mr  Collier,  now  reached  him. 

The  deputies  from  Plymouth,  Duxbury,  Scituate,  Taun- 
ton, Yarmouth,  Marshfield,  Bridgewater,  and  Dartmouth, 
were  reelected.     In  Sandwich,  Richard  Bourne  was  re- 

'  He  married  the  widow  of  Nathaniel  Tilden,  but  left  no  children. 


64  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

elected,    and    Thomas    Tupper    elected  ;    in  Barnstable, 
Joseph  Lathrop   was  elected  ;  in  Rehoboth,   Peter  Hunt 
and  Henry  Smith  ;    and    in    Eastham,  Daniel   Cole    was 
elected. 
1668.  The  assistants   were   all  reelected,  as  well  as  the  depu- 

ties from  Scituate,  Sandwich,  Taunton,  Rehoboth,  Bridge- 
water,  and  Dartmouth.  In  Plymouth,  Ephraim  Morton 
was  reelected  and  Samuel  Dunham  elected  ;  in  Duxbury, 
Mr  Southworth  was  reelected  and  Josias  Standish  elected  ; 
in  Yarmouth,  Thomas  Hawes  and  John  Thacher  were 
elected ;  Mr  Joseph  Lathrop  was  reelected  and  John 
Chipman  elected  in  Barnstable  ;  Mr  Eames  was  reelected 
in  Marshfield,  and  Anthony  Snow  elected  ;  Mr  Daniel 
Cole  was  reelected  in  Eastham  and  Jonathan  Sparrow 
was  elected  ;  Swansey  for  the  first  time  was  represented 
by  John  Allin. 

The  colonists  had  been  much  annoyed  and  interrupted 
in  their  fishing  by  the  fishermen  of  Massachusetts.  The 
General  Court  at  their  session,  June,  1668,  ordered  '  that 
something  be  directed  from  the  Court  to  the  Court  of 
Massachusetts,  to  request  them  to  take  some  effectual 
care  for  the  restraint  of  this  abuse,  as  much  as  may  be.' 

All  persons  were  now  forbidden,  whether  inhabitants 
of  the  colony  or  not,  even  if  they  had  received  liberty 
from  the  court,  to  purchase  lands  of  the  Indians,  '  and  in 
case  any  should  so  possess  themselves  without  the  appro- 
bation and  leave  of  the  Court,  and  no  fine  could  be  ob- 
tained, the  land  so  purchased  should  be  seized  for  the 
country's  use,'  and  that  none  upon  any  pretence  whatso- 
ever should  be  suffered  to  buy  or  receive  in  any  way  from 
the  Indians  any  of  those  lands  that  appertain  unto  Mount 
Hope  or  Sawsumsit  neck,  or  any  other  such  necks  or  tracts 
of  lands  as  where  is  a  body  of  Indians  upon,  and  the 
Court  shall  judge  they  cannot  live  without.' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  65 

The  assistants  were  all  reelected.  In  Plymouth,  1G69. 
Ephraim  Morton  and  Robert  Finney  were  elected  depu- 
ties ;  in  Duxbury,  Constant  Southvvorth  ;  in  Scituate, 
Robert  Studaon  and  Isaac  Chettenden ;  in  Taunton, 
William  Harvey,  James  Walker;  in  Sandwich,  Edward 
Freeman,  jr.  ;  in  Barnstable,  John  Chipman,  Thomas  Hus- 
kins ;  in  Yarmouth,  Thomas  Hawes,  John  Thacher  ;  in 
Marshfield,  Mark  Eames,  Anthony  Snow  ;  in  Eastham, 
Daniel  Cole,  Jonathan  Sparrow ;  in  Rehoboth,  Philip 
Walker,  Nicholas  Peck;  in  Bridgewater,  John  Willis;  in 
Dartmouth,  John  Russell  ;  in  Swansey,  James  Brown. 

On   the    8th  of  December   died    Capt.  Thomas    South-  Rfath  of 

'  1  homas 

worth,  one  of  the  assistants,  at  the  age  of  fiftythree.     He  Souh- 

II  ■  1  "        r-     I  1  worth. 

attracted  tlie  attention  and  respect  ot  the  people  very 
early,  and  was  selected  to  succeed  Mr  Brewster  in  his 
office  of  ruling  elder,  but  Governor  Bradford  deeming  him 
to  be  well  adapted  to  civil  office,  the  design  was  aban- 
doned, and  Mr  Cushraan  was  elected.  Mr  Southvvorth 
was  elected  an  assistant  in  1652,  and  continued  in  the 
government  with  but  few  interruptions  until  his  death. 
He  was  one  of  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies 
in  1659,  and  three  years  after;  again  in  1664.  In  1654, 
he  was  appointed  governor  of  the  colony's  territory  on 
the  Kennebeck  river  in  iMaine.  He  was  a  man  eminent 
for  the  soundness  of  his  mind  and  the  piety  of  his  heart.* 
The  court  voted  that  the  confederation  with  two  colo- 
nies, viz.  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  '  should  stand 
and  remain  as  it  formerly  did  with  them,'  when  New 
Haven  was  included. 

*  This  gentleman  was  the  stepson  of  Governor  Bradford,  being  the  son  of 
the  celebrated  Alice  Southvvorth,  his  second  wife.  His  wife  was  his  cousin 
Elizabeth  Reyner,  a  daughter  of  the  Rev.  John  Reyner,  the  minister  of  Ply- 
mouth. His  only  child,  Elizabeth,  married  Joseph  Hovvland,  a  son  of  John 
Rowland,  one  of  the  pilgrims  of  the  May  Flower. 
PART  II.  U 


66  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY, 

1670.  Constant  Southworth  was  elected  an  assistant  to  supply 
the  place  of  his  deceased  brother.  The  other  assistants 
were  reelected,  as  well  as  the  deputies  from  Scituate, 
Taunton,  Yarmouth,  Marshfield,  Eastham,  Bridgcvvater, 
and  Swanse}'  ;  in  Plymouth,  Ephraim  Morton  was  re- 
elected and  John  Rowland  elected  ;  Thomas  Huskms  was 
reelected  in  Barnstable,  and  WilliamCrocker  was  elected  ; 
Duxbury  elected  William  Paybndy  ;  Sandwich  Richard 
Bourne  ;  Rehoboth  Stephen  Paine  and  William  Sabin  ; 
and  jMiddleborough  was  represented  for  the  first  time  by 
John  Morton. 

1671.  The  assistants  were  all  reelected.  The  deputies  from 
Scituate,  Barnstable,  Marshfield,  Rehoboth,  and  Bridge- 
water,  were  reelected  ;  Mr  Ephraim  Morton  was  reelected 
and  Mr  Robert  Finney  elected  from  Plymouth  ;  William 
Paybody  was  reelected  and  Josias  Standish  elected  from 
Duxbury  ;  Mr  Harvey  was  reelected,  and  William  Weth- 
erell  elected  from  Taunton  ;  Mr  Thacher  was  reelected 
and  John  Miller  elected  from  Yarmouth  ;  Edward  Free- 
man, jr.  was  elected  in  Sandwich ;  Josias  Cooke  and 
Thomas  Paine  in  Eastham  ;  John  Russell  in  Dartmouth  ; 
and  James  Brown  in  Swansey. 

1672.  John  Howland,  one  of  the  pilgrims  of  the  May  Flower, 
1  eath  of  who  belonged  to  Governor  Carver's  family  died  this  year, 
Howland.   February  22,  at  the   age  of  eighty.     Mr  Howland  was  an 

assistant  in  the  government  as  early  as  1633,  and  several 
years  after.* 

War  was  apprehended  with  the  Dutch.  '  The  court 
having  reason  upon  intelligence  received,  to  fear  trouble 
from  the  States  General  of  the  United  Belgic  Provinces, 
or  others,  before  the  revolution  of  a  year,'  issued  an  order 

*  He  left  several  daughters  and  four  sons,  viz.  John,  who  settled  at  Barn- 
stahle;  Joseph  at  Plymouth  ;  Isaac  at  Middleborough ;  and  Jabez,  after  the 
conquest  of  Mount  Hope,  at  Bristol. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  67 

to  each  of  the  military  officers  to  examine  tlie  arms  and 
ammunition,  and  the  '  town  stock,'  and  to  'gather'  the 
military  fines,  'and  in  case  of  sudden  assault  they  were 
to  be  guifled  by  the  orders  of  the  council  of  war,  which 
sat  at  Plymoutii,  April  2,  1667,  until  more  particular  or- 
ders were  received  from  the  governor,  major,  or  council 
of  war. 

The  assistants  were  all  reelected,  and  the  deputies  from 
Plymouth,  Duxbury,  Scituate,  Biidgewater,  Dartmouth, 
and  Swansey  ;  Mr  Harvey  was  reelected  and  George  Macy 
elected  in  Taunton  ;  Mr  Huskins  was  reelected  and  John 
Tliompson  elected  in  Barnstable;  Mr  Eames  was  reelected 
and  Nathaniel  Thomas  elected  in  Marshfield  ;  Mr  Thomas 
Paine  was  reelected  in  Eastham,  and  Daniel  Cole  elected  ; 
Thomas  Tupper  was  elected  in  Sandwich  :  Thomas  Hawes 
and  Edward  Sturges  in  Yarmouth ;  Peter  Hunt  and 
Daniel  Smith  in  Rehoboth,  and  John  iMorton  in  Middle- 
borough. 

The  court  sat  in  September  and  issued  the  following  i^''^^- 
declaration  :  '  the  court  having  considered  this  information 
concerning  the  Dutch  actings  at  New  York  and  places 
adjacent,  do  judge  it  our  duty  incumbent  on  us,  to  take 
care  in  the  best  way  we  can  for  the  preservation  of  his 
majesty's  interest  and  our  own  in  the  colonies,  but  duly 
considering  all  circumstances  attending  that  affair,  do  not 
as  yet  see  satisfactory  grounds  to  attempt  a  war  upon 
them,  without  express  command  from  his  majesty,  or  the 
necessary  defence  or  preservation  of  the  colonies  from 
their  invasion  or  injuries  done  to  any  of  the  members 
thereof,  in  which  case  happening,  this  court  ordereth  that 
the  governor  or  deputy  governor  having  intelligence 
thereof,  do  summon  the  General  Court  to  confer  about  it, 
and  meanwhile  do  adjourn  till  such  cause  of  appearance.' 
'  And  for   the   speedy  relief  of  any   of  our  confederates 


68  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

that  may  be  assaulted  by  the  enemy,  it  is  ordered  that 
the  governor  and  council  of  war  be  empowered  and  be 
trusted  to  manatre  that  affair  according  to  the  articles  of 
confederation  in  such  case  provided.' 

'  It  was  also  ordered  for  the  relief  of  such  towns  as 
should  be  in  distress  from  the  assault  of  an  enemy,  that 
the  chief  military  officer  or  officers  in  the  next  towns, 
with  the  advice  of  their  council  or  so  many  of  them  as 
might  be  had,  should  have  power  to  send  forth  such  a 
number  of  soldiers  with  a  commander,  as  by  them  shall 
be  judged  necessary  for  the  present  relief  of  the  distressed 
and  to  press  horses  for  their  better  expedition  if  they  see 
cause.' 
Death  of  This  year  was  made  memorable  by  the  death  of  Gover- 
FteacT'^  nor  Prence.  This  distinguished  gentleman  was  probf.bly 
a  native  of  Lechdale,  in  the  county  of  Gloucester,  Eng- 
land, at  which  place  his  father  and  grandfather  both  re- 
sided. He  was  born  about  the  year  1600,  and  was  one  of 
the  Leyden  company.  He  arrived  at  Plymouth  in  the 
Fortune  in  1621.  He  was  soon  chosen  one  of  the  assist- 
ants, and  was  extremely  active  in  all  the  concerns  of  the 
colony,  both  civil  and  military.  In  1634  he  was  chosen 
governor,  and  in  1635,  he  removed  to  Duxbury.  In  163S, 
with  much  reluctance  he  again  accepted  the  office  of 
governor,  on  condition  that  he  should  be  permitted  to 
reside  at  Duxbury.  If  he  did  not  originate,  he  was  the 
most  zealous  advocate  of  the  project  for  removing  the 
seat  of  government  to  Eastham  in  1643.  He  went  there 
himself,  and  he  may  be  considered  as  the  founder  of  that 
ancient  town,  the  common  mother  of  all  the  towns  on 
Cape  Cod  below  the  ancient  Yarmouth. 

From  1657,  he  remained  governor  until  his  death,  hav- 
ing been  elected  to  that  office  at  sixteen  annual  and  suc- 
cessive elections.     The   laws  required  that  the  governor 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  69 

should  reside  at  Plymouth,  but  this  provision  was  dispensed 
with  to  favor  him.  In  1665  he  removed  to  Plymouth  and 
resided  there  until  his  death,  at  a  house  which  had  been 
built  expressly  for  the  accommodation  of  the  governor  for 
the  time  being. 

Governor  Prence  was  not  altogether  happy  in  his  admin- 
istration of  the  government.  The  severe  proceedings 
against  the  Q-uakers  were  favored  by  him,  and  the  dispo- 
sition which  he  displayed  in  religious  affairs  was  intole- 
rant and  overbearing,  and  it  certainly  was  unjust  to  pro- 
cure the  removal  of  Mr  Hatherly,  Mr  Cudworth,  and  Mr 
Brown  from  the  government,  merely  because  they  were 
in  advance  of  the  age.  What  was  then  condemned  as 
criminal  weakness,  would  now  be  lauded  as  enlightened 
wisdom.  Nevertheless,  the  fault  of  Governor  Prence  was 
the  common  fault  of  the  age,  and  rather  indicates  a  feel- 
ing common  to  all,  than  any  peculiar  severity  and  intole- 
rance in  him  as  an  individual. 

He  was  unfortunate  in  other  affairs.  The  first  serious 
disputes  with  the  Indians  commenced  during  his  admin- 
istration. He  was  annoyed  too  by  the  investigations  of 
the  royal  commissioners,  although  they  found  but  little  to 
condemn  in  Plymouth. 

His  administration  is  rendered  illustrious  from  his  zealous 
and  incessant  efforts  to  introduce  a  regular  system  of 
school  education,  and  although  they  were  unsuccessful, 
except  in  establishing  a  school  at  Plymouth,  which  was 
supported  by  the  profits  of  the  fishery  at  Cape  Cod,  yet 
previous  to  his  death  that  system  fraught  with  such  incal- 
culable benefits  to  posterity  was  commenced  through  his 
agency,*  and  was  afterwards  sustained  at  the  public  ex- 

*  Judge  Davis  in  his  account  of  Governor  Prence,  speaks  of  his  having  se- 
cured public  support  for  schools  at  Taun(on  and  Rehoboih.  No  trace  of  this 
can  be  found  in  the  records,  and  only  a  law  which  appropriated  the  profits  of 
the  Cape  fishery  for  that  purpose,  and  that  only  for  the  school  at  Plymouth. 


70  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONV. 

pense.  His  exertions  to  establish  this  system  were  the 
more  meritorious,  inasmuch  as  he  had  not  like  his  prede* 
cessors,  Bradford  and  Winslow,  pretensions  to  literature 
himself. 

He  was  also  zealously  engaged  in  securing  a  regular 
and  certain  support  for  the  ministers  of  the  gospel.  His 
strong  attacliment  to  literature  sharpened  his  dislike  to 
those  sectarians  who  professed  to  disdain  all  human 
learning.  His  whole  attention  was  given  to  public  affairs, 
in  which  he  was  industrious,  patient,  and  enterprising. 

His  personal  appearance  was  noble,  and  his  deportment 
dignified  and  commanding  ;  so  much  so,  that  it  is  even 
noticed  in  the  records  of  the  church.  '  He  had,  (says 
the  record,)  a  countenance  full  of  majesty.'* 

He  died  on  the  8th  of  April,  1673.  At  the  ensuing 
court  in  June,  Josias  Winslow,  the  eldest  son  of  the  late 
governor  Edward  Winslow,  was  elected  as  the  successor 
of  Governor  Prence.  John  Alden  still  remained  the  first 
assistant.  The  other  assistants  chosen  at  the  annual 
election  were  William  Bradford,   Thomas  Hinckley,  John 

*  Governor  Prence  had  but  one  son.  His  name  was  Thomas.  He  went  to 
England  young,  married  there,  and  soon  after  died,  leaving  an  only  daughter, 
whose  name  was  Susanna.  The  governor  was  anxious  that  she  should  come 
to  America,  but  this  was  prevented  by  the  fondness  of  her  mother.  His  eldest 
daughter  Rebecca,  was  married  to  Edmund  Freeman,  jr.  of  Sandwich.  These 
were. the  children  of  Patience  Brewster,  a  daughter  of  the  venerable  William 
Brewster,  to  whom  Governor  Prence  was  married  in  1624.  By  his  second 
wife,  Mary,  who  was  the  daughter  of  William  CoUiei',  one  of  the  assistants, 
formerly  a  London    merchant,  and  to  whom  he   was  married  in  1635,  he  was 

the  father  of  seven  daughters,  viz.  Mary,  married  to Tracy  of  Duxbury, 

Elizabeth,  to  Arthur  Rowland  of  Duxbury  ;  Judith  to  Isaac  Barker  of  Dux- 
bury  ;  Hannah  to  IS  athaniel  Mayo  of  Eastham ;  Jane  to  Mark  Snow  of  East- 
ham  ;  Sarah  to  Jeremiah  Howes  of  Yarmouth ;  Mercy  to  John  Freeman  of 
Eastham. 

This  notice  of  Governor  Prence  has  been  condensed  from  the  more  copious 
sketch  of  Judge  Davis  in  his  edition  of  the  New  England  Memorial. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  >ji 

Freeman,  Nathaniel  Bacon,  Constant  Southworth,  James 
Brown. 

The  deputies  from  Duxbury,  Scitnate,  Taunton,  Sand- 
wich, and  Bridgewater,  were  reelected  ;  Mr  ]\]orton  was 
reelected  in  Plymouth,  and  M.  S.  Crow  ;  Mr  Hawes  in 
Yarmouth,  and  John  Thacher;  Mr  Thompson  in  Barn- 
stable, and  Joseph  Lathrop  ;  Mr  Eames  in  Marshfield,  and 
Anthony  Snow ;  Mr  Hunt  in  Rehoboth,  and  Anthony 
Perry;  Mr  Paine  in  Eastham,  and  Jonathan  Spfirrow  ; 
John  Cooke  in  Dartmouth  ;  Hugh  Cole  was  elected  in 
Swansey  in  the  place  of  James  Brown  chosen  an  assist- 
ant;  John  Morton  was  reelected  in  Middleborough. 

On  a  new  summons  for  a  court  to  be  holden  in  Septem- 
ber, 1673,  (he  deputies  from  Duxbury,  Scituate,  Taun- 
ton, Yarmouth,  Bridgewater,  and  Dartmouth,  were  re- 
chosen  :  in  Plymouth,  Sergeant  William  Harlow  in  the 
place  of  Mr  Crow;  in  Sandwich,  Edmund  Freeman,  jr. 
and  William  Swift  ;  in  Marshfield,  Lieutenant  Peregrine 
White  and  Anthony  Snow  ;  Rehoboth,  Lieutenant  Peter 
Hunt  and  Ensign  Henry  Smith  ;  in  Eastham,  Jonathan 
Sparrow  and  Daniel  Cole;  in  Swansey,  Nathaniel  Peck  j 
in  Middleborough,  Jonathan  Dunham. 

By  the  active  friendship  and  powerful  influence  of  gov-  1674. 
ernor    Winslow,    James    Cudworih    was    restored    to    the 
magistracy,  from  which  he  had  been  excluded  on  account 
of  his  tolerating  principles.     Mr  Cudworth   supplied   the 
place  at  the  board  of  assistants  of  Nathaniel  Bacon. 

The  deputies  from  Duxbury,  Scituate,  Sandwich,  Bridge- 
water,  and  Dartmouth,  were  rechosen.  Li  Plymouth, 
Ephraim  Morton  was  reelected,  and  William  Clarke  was 
elected.  In  Taunton,  Mr  Macy  was  reelected  and  John 
Tisdill  was  elected  ;  in  Yarmouth,  John  Thacher  was  re- 
elected, and  Edmund  Hawes  was  elected  ;  in  Barnstable, 
Thomas  Huskins  and  William  Crocker  were  elected  ;  in 


72  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY, 

Marshfield,  Anthony  Snow  was  reelected,  and  Mark  Eames 
elected  ;  in  Rehoboth,  Ensign  Henry  Smith  was  reelected, 
and  Daniel  Smith  elected  ;  in  Eastham,  Mr  Sparrow  was 
reelected  and  Jonathan  Bangs  elected  ;  Hugh  Cole  was 
elected  in  Swansey,  and  John  Thompson  in  Middlebo- 
rough. 
June.  The  court  having  ordered  Mannamoiett,  Paomet,  and 
Satucket  to  be  included  in  the  town  of  Eastham  ;  it  was 
further  ordered  '  that  all  other  places  in  like  capacity 
should  belong  unto  particular  townships,  as  the  court 
should  see  meete.' 

1675.  Governor  Winslow  was  reelected  governor,  and  John 
Alden  first  assistant  ;  the  other  assistants  were  William 
Bradford,  Thomas  Hinckley,  John  Freeman,  Constant 
Southworth,  James  Brown,  and  James  Cudworth.  The 
deputies  from  Plymouth  were  Lieutenant  Ephraim  Mor- 
ton, Sergeant  William  Harlow  ;  Du.\bury,  William  Pay- 
body,  Josias  Standish  ;  Scituate,  John  Damon,  Jeremiah 
Hatch  ;  Taunton,  Lieutenant  George  Macy,  William  Har- 
vey ;  Sandwich,  Thomas  Tupper ;  Barnstable,  Thomas 
Huskins,  Barnabas  Lathrop  ;  Yarmouth,  Edmund  Hawes, 
Capt.  Thomas  Hawes ;  Marshfield,  Ensign  Mark  Eames, 
Anthony  Snow  ;  Eastham,  Jonathan  Sparrow,  Mark  Snow  ; 
Rehoboth,  Ensign  Henry  Smith,  Daniel  Smith  ;  Bridge- 
water,  John  Willis  ;  Swansey,  Hugh  Cole  ;  Dartmouth, 
John  Cooke  ;  Middleborough,  John  Thompson. 

June.  A  departure  was  made  at  this  court  from  the  plain  and 
simple  habits  of  the  early  pilgrims.  Four  halberts  were 
ordered  to  attend  the  governor  and  assistants  on  election 
days,  and  two  during  the  continuance  of  the  court. 

The  court  ordered  Mr  Constant  Southworth  and  William 
Paybody,  '  with  such  persons  as  should  be  designated  by 
the  towns,  to  ascertain  their  several  boundaries,  and  to 
place  monuments  on  the  boundary  lines.' 


73 


CHAPTER  II. 

ABSTRACT  OF  THE  LAWS  OF  THE  COLONY  OF  NEW  PLYMOUTH 

FROM    1641    TO    JUNE,    1675. 

In  September,  1658,  the  General  Court  for  the  first  time 
ordered  the  laws  which  before  had  been  unpublished  to 
be  revised  and  published.  This  order  was  executed  by 
the  secretary,  who  prepared  a  number  of  books  in  manu- 
script equal  to  the  number  of  the  towns,  and  in  this  mode 
were  they  published  without  printing  ;  as  new  laws  were 
made,  they  were  added  to  those  already  in  the  book. 

The  laws  were  revised  first  in  1G3G,  then  in  165S,  as 
abovcmentioned.  In  1G71,  the  governor,  the  major,  Mr 
Hinckley,  and  IMr  Wallcy,  were  chosen  a  committee  to 
peruse  the  laws,  and  gather  up  from  them  or  any  other 
they  can  get,  and  compose  therefrom  a  body  of  laws  which 
they  were  required  to  present  at  the  next  court ;  this  was 
done,  and  in  1671,  there  was  a  third  revision.  In  1672, 
they  were  for  the  first  time  printed,  with  this  title  :  'The 
Book  of  the  General  Laws  of  the  Inhabitcinls  of  the  Juris- 
diction of  New  Plymouth  ;'*   and  in  June,  1673,  the  court 

*  The  laws  were  printed  by  Samuel  Green  of  Cambridge.  It  is  worthy  of 
note  that  not  a  single  copy  of  the  printed  laws  is  now  extant ;  and  Governor 
Hutchinson  the  historian  of  Massachusetts,  careful  and  accurate  a-;  he  was 
generally,  was  induced  to  believe  that  the  government  of  Plymouth  '  never 
established  any  distinct  code  or  body  of  laws.' 

Id  the  office  of  the  town  clerk  of  Taunton,  there  is  a  manuscript  volume  of 
PART  II.  10 


74  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

ordered  that  nothing  shall  stnnd  in  force  in  our  written 
book  of  laws  but  what  tiie  printed  laws  refer  unto;  and 
in  September,  1G73,  the  governor,  and  Mr  ThoiYias  Hinck- 
ley, and  the  treasurer,  were  ordered  to  review  and  collect 
into  one  such  laws  and  orders  in  the  written  book  as  were 
of  use. 

The  edition  in  manuscript  which  was  ordered  by  the 
court  in  I65S,  was  prefaced  with  the  following  address  : 

'  The  Book  of  the  General  Laws  and  Liberties  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  jurisdiction  of  New  Plymoutii,  out  of 
the  records  of  the  General  Court,  and  lately  revised  and 
established,  and  disposed  into  an  alphabetical  order,  and 
published  by  the  authority  of  the  General  Court  held  at 
New  Plymouth,  the  twentyninth  day  of  September,  Anno 
Domini,  1658. 


Be  subject  to  every  ordinance  of  man  for  the  Lord's  sake.    1  Peter,  ii.  13. 


'To  our  beloved  brethren  and  neighbors  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  jurisdiction  of  New  Plymouth  :  the  governor, 
assistants,  and  deputies,  assembled  at  the  General  Court 
of  the  jurisdiction  held  at  the  town  of  Plymouth,  the 
twentyninth  day  of  September,  Anno  Domini  1658,  wisli- 
eth  grace  and  peace  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  It  was  the 
great  privilege  of  Israel  of  old,  and  so  was  acknowledged 
by  them,  Nehemiah,  ix,  13,  that  God  gave  them  right 
judgment  and  true  laws,  for  God  being   the  God  of  order 

the  laws  of  the  colony  in  perfect  preservation  and  continued  to  the  termination 
of  the  government,  the  last  entry  being  in  1689. 

Tradilion  says  that  the  latter  p.irt  of  this  manuscript  volume  was  written  out 
by  Shadrach  Wilbore  the  town  clerk  of  Taunton,  who  was  imprisoned  at  Ply- 
mouth during  the  usurpation  of  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  by  his  order,  for  refusing 
to  surrender  the  town  recoids.  To  relieve  the  tedium  of  his  solitary  hours,  he 
amused  himself  by  copying  the  laws,  and  the  handwriting  of  the  latter  part  of 
the  book  seems  to  render  the  traditionary  account  probable. 


MEMOIR  OP  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  75 

and  not  of  confusion,  hath  commanded  in  his  word,  and 
put  man  in  a  capacity  in  some  measure  to  observe  and  be 
guided  by  good  and  wholesome  laws,  which  are  so  far 
good  and  wholesome  as  by  how  much  they  are  derived 
from,  and  agreeable  to  the  ancient  platform  of  God's  law  ; 
for  although  sundry  tilings  which  was  in  the  judicial  law 
which  was  of  old  enjoined  to  the  Jews,  did  more  especially 
(at  least  in  some  circumstances)  befit  their  condition ; 
yet  are  they  for  the  maine  so  exemplary,  being  grounded 
on  principles  of  moral  equity,  as  that  all  men,  (Christians 
especially,  ought  always  to  have  an  eye  thereunto,  in  the 
framing  of  their  laws  and  constitutions  ;  and  although 
several  of  the  heathen  nations  who  were  ignorant  of  the 
true  God  and  his  Son,  have  been  famous  in  their  times 
for  the  enacting  and  execution  of  such  laws  as  have 
proved  profitable  for  the  government  of  their  common- 
wealths in  the  times  wherein  they  lived,  yet  notwithstand- 
ing their  excellency  appeared  so  far  as  they  were  founded 
upon  grounds  of  moral  equity,  which  has  its  original  from 
the  law  of  God  ;  and  accordingly  v^'e  who  have  been  actors 
in  the  framing  of  this  small  body  of  laws,  together  with 
other  useful  instruments  who  have  gone  to  their  rest,  can 
safely  say  both  for  ourselves  and  them,  that  we  have  had 
an  eye  primarily  and  principally  unto  the  aforesaid  plat- 
form and  secondarily  unto  the  right  improvement  of 
liberties  granted  to  us  by  our  superiors  the  State  of 
England,  at  the  first  beginning  of  this  infant  plantation 
was  to  enact  such  laws  as  should  most  befit  a  state  in  t'le 
nonage  thereof,  not  rejecting  or  omitting  to  observe  such 
of  the  laws  of  our  native  country  as  would  conduce  unto 
the  good  and  growth  of  so  weak  a  beginning  as  ours  in 
this  wilderness;  as  any  impartial  eye  not  forestalled  with 
prejudice  may  exactly  discern  in  the  perusal  of  this  small 
book    of  the  laws   of    our  colony  :     the  premises   duly 


76  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY, 

considered  might  work  every  conscientious  spirit  to 
faithful  obedience;  and  although  we  hold  and  do  affirm 
that  both  courts  of  justice  and  magistrates  who  are 
the  ministers  of  the  law,  are  essentially  civil ;  notwith- 
standing we  consider  that  as  the  magistrate  hath  his 
power  from  God,  so  undoubtedly  he  is  to  improve  it  for 
the  honor  of  God,  and  that  in  the  upholding  of  his 
worship  and  service  and  against  the  contrary  ;  with  due 
respect  also  to  be  had  unto  those  that  are  really  consci- 
entious, although  differing  and  dissenting  in  some  smaller 
matters;  but  if  any  really,  or  in  pretence  of  conscience 
doeth  that  which  eminently  leadeth  to  the  destruction  of 
civil,  and  violation  of  natural  bonds,  or  the  overthrow  of 
the  churches  of  God  or  of  his  worship,  that  prudence  is 
to  be  improved  in  a  special  manner  in  the  drafting  and 
execution  of  laws.  It  hath  been  our  endeavor  in  framing 
our  laws  that  nothing  should  be  found  amongst  them  but 
that  which  will  fall  under  the  same  particulars;  we  have 
likewise  reduced  them  to  such  order  as  they  may  most  con- 
duce to  our  utility  ;  possibly  it  may  be  that  weakness  may 
t-  appear  in  the  composure  of  sundry  of  them  for  want  of 

such  plenty  of  able  instruments  as  others  are  furnished 
withal  :  However  let  this  suffice  the  gentle  reader,  that 
our  endeavor  to  the  utmost  of  our  powers  in  these  our 
endeavors  to  promote  both  church  and  state,  bntli  at  pre- 
sent and  for  the  future,  and  therefore  so  far  as  we  have 
aimed  at  the  glory  of  God  and  common  good,  and  acted 
according  to  God,  be  not  found  a  resister,  but  obedient, 
least  thereby  thou  resist  the  ordinance  of  God,  and  so 
incur  the  displeasure  of  God  unto  damnation.  Romans, 
xiii,  2.  By  order  of  the  General  Court, 

'  Nathaniel  Morton,  Clerk.' 
From  this  address  it  plainly  appears  that  our  forefathers 
attempted  to  establish  the  laws  which  were  prescribed  to 
the  Jews,  as  the  basis  of  their  own. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  77 

Lavv3    Relating    to    thr    Powers,    Duties,    Qualifica- 
tions, OF  Frekmen,  6ic. 

164G.  '  Whereas  the  several  towns  in  this  jurisdiction 
were  before  their  deputies,  which  must  arise  out  of  the 
freemen  to  attend  the  General  Courts  oftheycar  :  now  upon 
the  special  complaint  of  the  deputies  of  the  towns  present, 
professing  themselves  to  be  oppressed  thereby,  it  was 
enacted  that  the  whole  body  of  freemen  shall  appear  at 
the  Election  Courts,  and  then  to  make  or  repeal  such 
laws,  orders,  and  ordinances,  as  shall  be  found  meet  and 
wholesome  for  the  ordering  of  the  government,  and  they 
shall  also  present  such  deputies  as  have  been  chosen  in 
their  towns  according  to  order  formerly  established,  who 
are  to  attend  the  same  and  the  several  adjournments 
thereof;  and  whatsoever  laws,  orders,  and  ordinances, 
shall  be  made  or  repealed,  be  at  that  Court  and  the  ad- 
journments thereof  only  done,  except  the  governor  and 
assistants  see  cause  to  call  a  special  court,  and  other 
courts  to  attend  to  matters  of  judicature,  and  the  magis- 
trates only  to  attend   to  the  same.'  - 

The  power  of  legislation  would  seem  by  this  law  to 
have  been  not  only  restored  to  the  freemen  at  the  request 
of  the  deputies,  but  the  attendance  of  the  freemen  to  pass 
upon  laws  was  commanded  ;  the  judiciary  was  specially 
separated  from  the  legislative  department. 

In  1651,  the  following  law  as  to  the  right  and  practice 
of  voting  was  passed  ;  '  Whereas  in  regard  of  age,  disa- 
bility of  body,  and  other  inconveniences  that  do  accrue, 
sundry  of  the  freemen  are  hindered  that  they  cannot  ap- 
pear at  courts  of  election,  in  consideration  whereof  it  is 
enacted  by  tiie  court  and  the  authority  thereof,  that  any 
freemen  of  this  corporation  shall  have  liberty  to  send 
their  vote  by  proxy  for  the  choice  of  governor,  assistants 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

commissioners,  and  trensurer,  and  the  deputies  of  the  sev- 
eral towns  chosen  to  attend  the  courts  of  election,  and 
the  several  adjournments  thereof,  shall  in  the  town-meet- 
ing in  which  ihey  are  chosen,  they  or  either  of  them  give 
notice  unto  tlie  freemen  that  those  that  intend  not  to  make 
their  personal  appearance  at  tlie  court  of  election,  are 
now  t.>  give  in  their  votes  polled  up  for  the  choosing  of 
governor,  assistants,  commissioners,  and  treasurer,  and  the 
said  deputies  to  observe  by  a  list  of  their  names,  who  had 
voted  and  who  had  not,  which  votes  be  brought  in,  to  be 
immediately  polled  up,  and  brought  unto,  and  delivered 
in  the  open  court  by  said  deputies.' 

In  165S,  it  was  ordered  that  tiie  votes  of  freemen  pre- 
sent at  the  courts  of  election  should  be  first  read,  '  after 
which  the  deputies  were  orderly  to  present  the  proxies  of 
their  own  towns.' 

From  this  provision  it  would  appear  that  the  tickets  on 
which  the  names  were  written  were  transmitted  to  the 
courts,  and  were  there  examinetl,  and  although  in  these 
tinies  much  fraud  might,  and  probably  would  be  practised 
if  proxies  were  permitted,  yet  in  the  more  simple  and  un- 
sophisticated times  of  our  forefathers,  the  practice  was 
attended  with  no  danger. 

In  fact  the  colony  does  not  appear  to  have  been  much 
troubled  with  an  evil  extremely  prevalent  in  modern  times, 
—  contested  elections;  for  in  1660,  the  Court  'noticing 
that  many  of  the  freemen  of  the  corporation  did  not  ap- 
pear at  the  courts  of  election,  nor  send  their  votes  by' 
proxy  for  the  choice  of  magistrates,'  enacted  '  that  all 
such  should  be  fined,  unless  some  unavoidable  impedi- 
ment hinder  their  appearance.' 

Voting  was  then  considered  among  civil  duties,  and  was 
enjoined  under  penalties. 

In  1658,  it  was  enacted  '  that  all  such  as  are  the  oppo- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  79 

scrs  of  the  good  and  wholesome  laws  of  the  colony,  or 
mtinifest  opposeis  of  the  true  worship  of  God,  or  such  as 
refuse  to  do  *  tlie  country,  shall  not  be 

admitted  freemen  of  this  corporation,  being  duly  convicted 
thereof j'  and  also  'such  as  shall  speak  contemptuously  » 

of  the  laws,  or  such  as  are  judged  by  the  court  grossly 
scandalous,  as  lyars,  drunkards  or  sodomites,  shall  lose  the 
freedom  of  this  corporation.' 

This  law  being  passed  shortly  after  the  appearance  of 
the  Quakers,  was  evidently  intended  to  prevent  the  growth 
of  schism,  and  perhaps  liie  practice  of  free  inqu'-ry,  and 
for  this  purpose  the  magistracy  were  armed  with  additional 
powers,  and  had  in  some  degree  the  supervision  of  the 
manners  and  morals  of  the  people.  In  furtherance  of 
this  policy  it  was  enacted  in  the  same  year  'that  all  per- 
sons freemen  of  the  corporation,  shall  be  propounded  one 
year  to  the  court,  and  then  admitted  if  the  court  see  no 
cause  to  the  contrary. 

In  June,  1674,  it  was  enacted  '  that  the  names  of  the 
freemen  in  each  town  be  kept  upon  the  town  records. 
None  to  be  presented  to  ihe  court  to  take  up  their  free- 
dom unless  they  have  the  approbation  of  the  major  part  of 
the  freemen  at  home,  and  the  same  to  be  furnished  to  the 
court  under  the  clerk's  hand  by  the  deputies.' 

The  Pkivileges,  Duties,  Qualifications,  &,c,  of  Resi- 
dents NOT  Freemen. 
In  1658,  the  court  in  their  zeal  to  exclude  Quakers  from 
all  civil  privileges,  enacted  '  that  all  refusing  to  take  the 
oath  of  fidelity,  and  such  as  are  manifest  encouragers  of 
such,  shall  have  no  voice  in  the  choice  of  public  officers 
in  the  place  where  they  dwell,  nor  shall  bd  employed  in 
any  place  of  trust  while  they  continue  such.' 

'^  Illegible. 


80  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

In  1662,  it  was  enacted  'that  all  persons  who  are  at 
their  own  disposal,  and  have  not  taken  the  oath  of  fidelity 
shall  repair  unto  some  one  of  the  magistrates,  to  take 
said  oath  ;  neglecting,  to  be  summoned  to  any  election 
court,  and  there  refusing  or  neglecting  to  take  the  oath, 
to  be  fined  £5. 

The  Powers,  Duties,  Privileges,  Pat,  &c,  of  the 
Civil   Officers. 

In  1644,  it  was  made  lawful  for  the  governor  or  either 
of  the  magistrates  to  direct  a  summons  to  any  person 
within  the  government,  '  and  that  should  be  as  strong  as 
a  warrant  to  attach.' 

165S,  the  governor  and  assistants  were  authorized  '  to 
press  artizans,  to  build  prisons,  stocks,  or  whipping  posts, 
allowing  suitable  pay.' 

In  1614,  the  treasurer  was  required  to  settle  his  accounts 
annually. 

1657,  fines  in  the  remote  towns  might  be  levied  by  a 
constable  under  the  treasurer's  warraut.  The  remote 
towns  were  Taunton,  Rehoboth,  Eastham,  and  Bridge- 
water. 

In  1658,  the  treasurer  was  authorized  a  month  after 
judgment,  to  issue  his  warrant  for  fines. 

When  a  town  was  fined,  the  court  were  to  appoint  to 
make  a  rate,  three  men.  If  they  neglected  to  make  the 
rate,  they  were  to  pay  the  fine  themselves. 

In  1659,  an  oath  w:.s  required  of  the  treasurer,  and  also 
of  the  clerk  of  the  court. 

In  1641,  the  clerk  of  the  court  was  allowed  £20  in  ad- 
dition to  fees. 

In  1645,  executions  issuing  out  of  the  General  Court 
or  Court  of  Assistants,  were  directed  to  be  served  by  the 
marshal  alone. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  81 

In  1652,  the  court  of  magistrates  and  deputies  were 
authorized  to  compensate  any  person  in  public  place  '  for 
loss  of  time  or  damage.' 

It  was  required  that  the  chief  marshal  and  under  mar- 
shals should  be  under  oath. 

In  1655,  contempts  cast  upon  the  under  marshals  were 
to  be  punished. 

In  1658,  the  chief  marshal  was  authorized  to  require 
the  aid  and  assistance  of  all  the  people,  and  his  power 
was  declared  to  extend  over  the  whole  government. 

In  1659,  three  persons  were  ordered  to  be  nominated 
as  commissioners,  one  of  the  first  failing,  the  last  to 
serve. 

In  1660,  the  under  marshals  were  denied  any  fees  for 
keeping  a  prisoner  only,  for  commitment  and  release. 

In  1658,  a  law  was  passed  equally  indicative  of  the 
poverty  and  simplicity  of  this  little  commonwealth.  The 
public  officers  were  to  be  paid  in  corn  for  their  services, 
*  and  all  corn  delivered  in  to  pay  the  current  expenses  of 
the  country,  to  bear  one  price.' 

In  1666,  it  was  enacted  that  '  the  magistrates  be  not 
freed  from  bearing  their  proportion  in  country  rates  or 
charges. 

In  1658,  the  next  magistrates  were  authorized  to  exe- 
cute the  functions  of  a  coroner,  '  according  to  the  custom 
of  England.' 

In  1668,  constables,  in  case  of  the  inability  of  coroners, 
were  to  call  inquests  on  dead  bodies. 

In  reference  to  such  as  come  to  untimely  deaths,  it  was 
enacted,  July,  1673,  that  there  should  be  no  burial  without 
information  to  a  coroner  or  a  constable,  (where  there  was 
no  coroner,)  under  a  penalty  of  £5.  The  nearest  rela- 
tions to  the  deceased  to  give  notice  ;  if  none,  any  person 
having  knowledge  of  the  fact,  was  bound  to  communicate 

PART    II.  11 


82  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

it,  for  which  he  was  to  be  paid  from  the  estate  of  the  de- 
ceased, and  where  there  was  no  estate,  by  the  treasurer. 

Judiciary  Departmknt,    Jurors,  Witnesses,    Evidence, 
Processes,  &.c. 

In  IG66,  it  was  enacted  that  only  three  courts  in  the 
year  should  be  holden  for  the  trial  of  causes  by  jury,  viz. 
on  the  first  Tuesdays  of  March  and  July,  and  the  last 
Tuesday  of  October,  'but  that  it  should  be  lawful  on 
special  occasions,  for  any  citizen  of  the  colony  or  others, 
to  purchase  a  court  in  the  interim  to  be  composed  of  the 
governor  and  three  of  the  magistrates  at  least,'  '  and  that 
henceforth  there  should  be  no  court  of  assistants  unless 
the  governor  on  special  occasion  should  see  cause  to 
summon  such  a  court.'  Strangers  or  foreigners  had  been 
permitted  by  a  law  passed  in  1658,  in  suits  of  considera- 
ble value,  '  to  purchase  a  court  for  speedy  trial,  putting 
in  security  to  defray  the  charge.'  The  court  to  consist  of 
not  less  than  three  magistrates. 

In  1 669,  the  governor  and  two  assistants  were  empowered 
to  authorize  the  purchase  of  a  court  in  the  interim  between 
the  courts,  to  be  holden  by  the  governor  and  three  as- 
sistants at  least,  and  to  be  at  the  expense  of  the  appli- 
cants. 

By  a  law  of  1662,  no  summons  was  to  be  issued  out 
before  the  action  be  entered,  and  the  charges  defrayed. 
By  a  law  of  1668,  circumstantial  error  in  a  summons  or 
warrant  was  declared  to  be  no  ground  for  nonsuit. 

One  witness  was  declared  to  be  sufficient  to  ground  a 
presentment  on,  but  two  were  required  for  conviction. 
No  evidence  of  any  crime  less  than  capital  was  to  be  re- 
ceived after  two  years. 

In  1673,  the  deputies  were  allowed  to  have  a  vote  with 
the  magistrates  '  in  the  purging  of  the  court.' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUUH  COLONY.  83 

By  a  law  passed  in  1646,  grand  jurors  were  required 
once  in  each  year,  '  to  vie\v  all  the  weights,  measures,  and 
toll  dishes  in  their  several  towns,  and  to  see  that  every 
householder  have  sufficient  ladders,  and  to  present  the 
defects.' 

In  1G54,  the  towns  were  required  to  choose  none  for 
grand  jurors  but  such  as  were  '  capable  and  fit,  and  to  pay 
them.'  By  a  law  of  1658,  they  were  to  be  fined  for  ne- 
glecting to  appear  at  court.  By  a  law  of  1656,  they  were 
to  be  notified  to  appear  at  the  court  of  election  to  take 
the  oaih,  which  by  a  law  of  1659  was  required  to  be  in 
the  following  form  :  '  You  shall  true  presentment  make  of 
all  tilings  given  you  in  charge  ;  you  shall  present  nothing 
of  malice  or  ill  will.  Your  own  councils  and  your  fel- 
lows, in  reference  to  this  oath  you  shall  well  and  truly 
keep.     So  help  you  God.' 

In  1657,  inferior  officers,  such  as  constables,  grand 
jurors,  surveyors  of  highways,  were  to  be  confirmed  if 
approved  by  the  court.  In  1659,  each  constable  was  or- 
dered to  provide  himself  with  a  staff,  which,  if  not  re- 
elected, he  was  to  deliver  to  his  successor.  Any  one 
refusing  the  office  was  to  be  fined  £4. 

In  1655,  a  law  was  passed,  by  which  executions  were  to 
be  granted  within  one  month  after  verdict  and  not  before, 
unless  the  debtor  was  about  to  leave  the  jurisdiction. 
The  plaintiff  or  his  deputy  was  required  to* go  with  the 
marshal,  '  to  price  the  goods.'  The  defendant  had  the 
liberty  of  choosing  another  man,  and  the  marshal  and 
those  two  were  to  appraise  the  goods.  If  the  defendant 
neglected,  the  marshal  was  to  choose  in  his  behalf.  After 
the  goods  were  appraised,  they  were  to  be  delivered  to 
the  plaintiff  or  his  deputy.  If  the  goods  exceeded  debt 
and  charges,  the  plaintiff  was  required  to  pay  back  the 
overplus  in  six  days  in  country  pay  :  if  he  lived  out  of  the 


84  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

government,  to  return  the  overplus  forthwith,  or  to  give 
security  to  the  defendant  that  he  would  do  it  in  six  days. 

By  a  law  of  1673,  goods  levied  on  by  distress  or  execu- 
tion, were  to  be  appraised  by  '  two  meet  men  of  good 
judgment,  one  to  be  chosen  by  the  constable,  and  the 
other  by  the  debtor.  Upon  refusal  of  the  debtor,  '  to  set 
forth  suitable  goods  as  to  the  nearness  of  the  sum,'  the 
constable  was  authorized  to  seize  such  goods  '  as  should 
best  suit,  to  be  equally  and  indifferently  appraised  accord- 
ing to  the  special  due,  and  not  overprized.  Appraisers  re- 
fusing to  serve,  to  forfeit  5s.  to  the  country's  use.' 

In  1668,  all  debts  were  required  to  be  paid  in  specie, 
'  for  which  a  man  doth  agree,  and  all  damages  recovered 
for  debts,  defamation,  or  trespass,'  were  to  be  paid  in  any 
good  current  pay  at  price  current. 

In  1668,  an  act  was  passed  '  for  the  prevention  of  the 
diversion  of  the  execution  of  justice  by  fraud  or  cozin.' 

By  this  act  it  was  provided  that  where  estate  could  not 
be  found  '  to  satisfy  any  fine  or  mulct  due  the  country,  or 
to  answer  a  judgment  obtained  against  any  persons  at  the 
particular  suit  of  any,  the  person  of  any  so  fined  or  cast 
in  law  shall  be  secured  to  be  responsible  thereunto.' 

This  is  believed  to  have  been  the  first  colonial  law  which 
authorized  imprisonment  for  debt. 

Laws  Relating  to  Towns. — Their  Powers,  Penalties, 
AND  Liabilities. — Raters  or  Assessors. — Deputies. 
— Qualifications  of  Voters. — Town  Clerks. — The 
Office  of  Selectman. — Provision  for  the  Support 
OF  the  Poor. — Schools. — The  Support  of  Public 
Worship  and  the  Maintenance  of  Ministers. — Li- 
censed Houses,  &c. 
In  1643,  each  town  was  required  to  choose  three  or  four 

men  by  ballot,  to  rate   all   the  inhabitants  according  to 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  85 

their  estates  or  faculties,  that  is  according  to  goods, 
lands  improved,  faculties  and  personal  abilities,  whether 
the  rates  be  for  the  town  in  particular,  or  for  general 
charges.'  Constables  were  to  summon  the  townsmen 
to  meet  together  when  required,  under  penalty  of  20s. 
If  the  townsmen  did  not  meet,  the  constables  were  to 
choose  raters.  The  raters  neglecting  to  make  and  tran- 
scribe, and  deliver  the  rates  to  the  constables  in  two 
days  or  sooner,  each  to  forfeit  10s.  for  each  default,  and 
the  constables  neglecting  to  collect  the  rates  within  forty 
days  to  pay  them  themselves,  but  they  had  power  to  dis- 
train.    The  fines  to  be  paid  to  the  government. 

Personal  ability  and  faculty,  if  the  term  be  applied  to 
intellectual  capacity  was  a  difficult  subject  for  taxation. 
The  judgment  which  could  have  graduated  a  scale  x)f 
rates  in  any  just  or  accurate  proporiion  on  the  human  un- 
derstanding, must  have  possessed  more  than  human  saga- 
city. This  source  of  revenue  could  not  have  well  been 
brought  within  the  compass  of  an  estimate.  If  the  desire 
to  avoid  taxation  was  as  strong  under  the  colonial  govern- 
ment as  it  is  now,  many  would  have  been  willing  to  have 
yielded  a  reputation  for  talents  and  genius,  if  by  so  doing 
they  could  have  escaped  a  tax. 

In  1646,  it  was  required  that  a  town  clerk  should  be 
*  appointed  and  ordained,'  to  keep  in  each  town  a  register 
of  the  day  and  year  of  the  marriage,  birth,  and  burial  of 
every  man,  woman,  or  child,  within  the  township.  Every 
father,  mother,  or  next  in  relation,  v.as  required  to  certify 
to  the  register  keeper  or  town  clerk,  the  name  and  the 
day  of  the  birth  of  every  child  so  born  within  his  house 
within  a  month  next  after  the  birth,  under  penalty  of  35. 
for  such  neglect,  or  for  neglecting  to  inform  of  marriages. 
Every  niaster  or  mistress  of  a  family  to  furnish  the  names 
of  all  those  who  die  in  their  houses,  and  the  day  of  burial 


86  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLOJSIY. 

under  like  penalty,  and  the  clerk  was  required  to  furnish" 
to  the  court  annually  in  the  month  of  March,  a  true  and 
correct  copy  of  his  register.  The  town  clerk  was  also 
required  to  puWIish  all  contracts  of  marriage. 

In  1654,  the  town  clerk  was  required  to  be  under  oath. 
Accurate  registers  of  deaths,  births,  and  marriages, 
have  often  been  found  to  perform  the  part  of  silent  but 
indisputable  witnesses  in  the  courts  of  justice.  By  the 
production  of  sucli  records,  estates  have  been  frequently 
wrested  from  such  as  held  without  right,  and  have  been  re- 
stored to  the  right  heirs.  To  antiquaries  they  are  a  source 
of  harmless  pleasure,  by  enabling  them  to  trace  descents. 
They  sonietimes  render  important  aid  to  the  historian,  by 
enabling  him  to  fix  his  dates  with  the  precision  which  is 
sometimes  necessary  to  prove  the  accuracy  of  his  narrative. 

It  is  a  matter  of  curious,  and  even  of  philosophical,  but 
sometimes  of  painful  interest,  to  trace  the  vicissitudes  of 
American  families.  One  generation  surrounded  with 
splendor,  station,  and  wealth.  The  next  perhaps  in  mean 
employments,  and  in  poor  houses.  The  next  emerging 
from  poverty,  and  again  encompassing  the  high  places  of 
society,  sometimes  depressed  without  fault,  sometimes 
elevated  without  worth  or  wisdom. 

From  these  ancient  records  of  times  long  past,  it  is 
now  in  the  power  of  almost  every  son  of  New  England 
to  trace  his  ancestors,  to  know  who  they  were,  and  what 
they  did.  These  interesting  memorials  of  an  age  already 
sacred,  are  rapidly  disappearing,  but  while  the  traces 
remain  let  them  be  preserved. 

In  1646,  towns  neglecting  to  choose  deputies  were  fined 
40s.  and  deputies  neglecting  to  attend  Court  without  suffi- 
cient reason,  were  fined  20s. 

In  1658,  it  was  enacted  that  as  in  many  towns  the  num- 
ber of  freemen  was  less  than  the  number  of  inhabitants. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  87 

and  as  all  had  an  equal  right  to  vote,  '  it  may  come  to 
pass  that  very  unfit  and  unworthy  persons  may  be  chosen, 
that  cannot  answer  the  court's  trust  in  such  a  place  ;  t!iat 
as  all  such  as  magistrates  and  deputies,  are  to  act  in  mak- 
ing of  laws,  and  being  assembled,  the  court  in  the  first 
place  take  notice  of  their  members,  and  if  they  find  any 
unfit  for  such  a  trust,  that  they  and  the  reason  thereof  be 
returned  to  the  town  from  whence  they  were  sent,  that 
they  may  make  such  choice  of  more  fit  and  able  persons 
to  send  in  their  stead  as  the  tima  will  permit.' 

The  right  of  expulsion  was  now  emphatically  asserted, 
in  consequence  of  the  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the 
measures  expedient  to  be  pursued  with  respect  to  the 
Quakers.  Those  who  were  against  the  severe  measures 
proposed  by  the  majority  wert;  expelled,  or  in  the  language 
of  the  day  'set  aside,'  such  as  Mr  Cudworth  of  Sciluate, 
Mr  Skiff  of  Sandwich,  &c. 

In  1668,  none  were  permitted  to  vote  in  town  meetings 
'  but  freemen  and  freeholders,  of  £20  rateable  estate 
and  of  good  conversation,  having  taken  the  oath  of  fidel- 
ity.' 

The  Office  of  Selectman. 
In  1665,  the  court  enacted  that  in  every  town  there 
should  be  '  three  or  five  selectmen  chosen  by  the  towns- 
men out  of  the  freemen,  such  as  shall  be  approved  by  the 
court,  for  the  better  managing  the  affairs  of  the  respective 
townships,  and  they  were  empowered  '  to  hear  and  deter- 
mine all  debts  and  differences  arising  betwixt  person  and 
person,  not  exceeding  thirty  shillings,'  and  also  to  hear 
and  determine  all  differences  arising  betwixt  any  Indians 
and  English  of  their  respective  townships,  about  damage 
done  by  the  cows,  swine,  or  other  beasts  of  the  English  ;' 
and  in  case  their  award  was  not  satisfactory,   a  magis- 


88  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

trRte's  warrant  was  to  issue,  by  which  distraint  might  be 
made.  It  was  further  enacted  '  that  the  selectmen  in 
every  township  approved  by  the  court  or  any  of  them, 
should  have  power  to  give  forth  summons  in  his  majesty's 
name,  to  require  any  persons  complained  of,  to  attend  the 
hearing  of  the  case,'  and  also  to  summon  witnesses,  '  and 
to  determine  controversies  according  to  legal  evidence,' 
the  complainants  were  required  to  serve  the  summons  upon 
those  complained  of,  and  in  case  of  non-appearance,  the 
selectmen  were  nevertheless  to  proceed  and  determine 
the  controversy. 

In  1666,  their  powers  were  enlarged,  the  jurisdiction 
was  so  far  extended  as  to  embrace  cases  where  the  dam- 
ages were  laid  at  405.  the  right  of  appeal  being  preserved. 
They  were  also  empowered  to  administer  oaths  and  to 
issue  executions.  The  party  appealing  were  required  to 
give  security  for  the  prosecution  of  the  appeal,  and  also 
to  state  the  reason. 

They  were  required  to  take  the  following  oath.  '  You 
shall,  according  to  that  measure  of  wisdom  and  discretion 
God  hath  given  you,  faithfully  and  impartially  try  all 
such  cases  between  party  and  party  brought  before  you, 
as  also  give  such  summons  respecting  your  trust  ac- 
cording to  order  of  court,  as  a  Selectman  for  the  town  of 
for  this  present  year.     So  help  you  God.' 

They  were  also  required  to  take  notice  of  all  who  came 
into  the  government  without  the  approbation  of  the  gov- 
ernor or  two  assistants,  and  to  warn  them  to  apply  for 
such  approbation,  and  upon  their  refusal  or  neglect,  they 
were  to  require  them  to  appear  at  the  next  court  at  Ply- 
mouth, and  to  require  security  for  their  appearance.  If 
they  refused  or  neglected  to  give  security,  the  constable, 
upon  the  information  of  the  selectmen,  was  required  to 
apprehend  and  carry  them  before  the  governor  and  assist- 
ants. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  89 

The  court  noticing  the  great  neglect  in  frequenting 
public  worship,  ordered  the  selectmen  to  require  an  ac- 
count of  all  whom  they  should  suppose  to  have  neglected 
public  worship  from  profanity  or  slothfulness,  and  if  they 
were  not  satisfied,  to  return  their  names  to  the  court. 

In  16G9,  the  selectmen  '  were  authorized  to  issue  war- 
rants of  capias  and  attachment  in  his  majesty's  name. 
Single  persons  were  forbidden  to  live  by  themselves,  or  in 
any  family  excepting  such  as  should  be  approved  by  the 
selectmen,  and  in  case  they  refused  obedience  to  the  order 
of  the  selectmen,  they  were  to  be  summoned  to  court  and 
proceeded  against. 

By  a  law  of  1G70,  any  one  refusing  to  serve  in  the  office 
of  selectman  was  to  be  fined.  In  the  same  year  the  court 
enacted  '  that  no  attachment  should  be  granted  by  select- 
men against  any  freeman  or  other  inhabitant,  and  that 
there  should  be  three  courts  of  selectmen  in  a  year. 

The  selectmen  were  this  year  empowered  to  try  all 
questions  between  the  English  and  the  Indians  excepting 
capital  and  land  titles.  They  were  authorized  to  take  a 
constable  and  '  repair  to  any  house  or  place  where  they 
might  suspect  that  any  slothful  did  lurk  at  home  or  get 
together  in  companies  to  neglect  the  public  worship  of 
God,  or  profane  the  Lord's  day  and  finding  any  disorder 
to  return  the  names  of  the  offenders  to  the  next  court, 
and  also  to  give  notice  of  any  particular  miscarriage.' 

The  powers  and  duties  of  selectmen  appear  to  have 
been  of  a  high  character.  They  were  not  only  the 
ciiief  executive  and  police  officers  of  the  several  towns, 
charged  with  a  general  superintendence  of  town  affairs, 
and  with  a  general  oversight  of  the  morals  and  manners  of 
the  inhabitants,  but  they  were  judicial  officers,  and  were 
constituted  a  court.    They  united  the  functions  of  the  mod- 

PART    IJ.  12 


90  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY, 

ern  justice  of  the  peace,  and  partially  those  of  the  old  coun- 
ty courts  of  common  pleas,  with  a  jurisdiction  limited  to 
the  towns.  This  judicial  power  was  conferred  upon  them 
in  consequence  of  the  great  inconvenience  which  the 
people  of  the  remote  towns  suffered  from  being  obliged  to 
attend  the  courts  at  Plymouth  in  small  cases. 

They  exercised  a  supervisory  power  upon  all  who  came 
into  the  colony  without  the  approbation  of  the  governor 
and  two  assistants,  and  they  could  compel  them  to  obtain 
such  approbation,  or  to  appear  before  the  governor  and 
assistants  for  further  dealing. 

They  united  the  functions  of  the  Roman  censor  with 
those  of  the  modern  police  officer.  By  a  law  of  1666, 
they  were  required  to  interrogate  such  as  they  supposed 
neglected  to  attend  public  worship  from  '  profanity  or 
slothfulness,'  and  to  return  their  names  to  the  assistants, 
and  by  a  law  of  1G70  they  were  further  empowered  to 
break  into  the  haunts  of  the  slothful  and  profane  who 
neglected  the  Lord's  day  and  the  public  worship  of  God, 
to  employ  the  assistance  of  a  constable,  and  to  notify  the 
court  of  the  offenders. 

They  were  empowered  to  compel  single  persons  to  live 
in  such  families  as  they  should  direct,  and  were  authorized 
to  prevent  them  from  'living  by  themselves'  and  in  case 
these  orders  were  neglected  or  opposed,  they  could  issue 
processes  to  compel  a  compliance. 

The   possession   of  power  too   often   leads  to  its  abuse. 

The  power  of  the  selectmen  was  not  so  clearly  defined 
as  to  prevent  doubts  as  to  its  extent,  and  some  uneasiness 
arising  probably  from  partial  abuses,  the  court  in  June, 
1675,  found  it  necessary  to  pass  a  law,  by  which  their 
power  was  defined  with  more  precision,  and  in  some  mea- 
sure restricted. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  .   91 

The  reason  of  the  law  is  stated  in  the  preamble. 

'  Whereas  through  the  variety  of  interpretations  of  sun- 
dry orders  respecting  the  selectmen's  courts,  there  may 
arise  such  actings  as  may  be  cross  to  the  maine  end  of 
that  constitution,'  the  court  therefore  order  that  the  courts 
of  selectmen  shall  not  have  power  to  send  forth  any  pre- 
cept to  seize  any  estate  without  their  respective  town- 
ships, or  to  compel  any  person  that  is  not  found  within 
their  respective  towns  unto  their  obedience.  Nor  shall 
they  have  power  to  try  any  of  the  king's  officers  respect- 
ing the  execution  of  their  office,  for  any  damage  to  any 
persons,  nor  to  try  an  action  of  defamation,  battery,  or 
that  respects  title  of  lands,  nor  to  make  allowances  for 
more  witnesses  than  is  necessary,  nor  to  allow  more  than 
18d.  a  day  for  one  witness,  nor  to  allow  any  cost  for 
any  attorneys,  nor  to  hold  more  than  two  courts  in  a  year, 
viz.  on  the  last  Tuesday  of  September  and  the  first  Tues- 
day in  February ;  nor  to  adjourn  any  of  their  courts 
longer  than  until  the  next  day  immediate'y  following, 
saving  their  liberty  only  to  call  a  special  court  in  case  they 
see  urgent  cause  thereof,  only  on  the  account  of  a  stran- 
ger being  concerned  in  a  case,  which  withaut  much  dam- 
age cannot  well  be  deferred  to  one  of  the  colony  courts. 
The  inhabitant  of  another  town  neglecting  to  prosecute 
or  to  signify  to  the  defendant,  and  to  one  of  the  select- 
men his  letting  fall  his  action,  then  appearing  the  defend- 
ant to  have  cost,  which  being  certified,  the  magistrate 
shall  issue  his  warrant  to  a- constable  for  a  levy  of  the  cost 
on  the  said  offending  plaintiftV 

Such  were  the  powers  and  such  the  duties  of  selectmen. 
In  the  ordinary  transactions  of  the  towns,  their  functions 
were  of  the  most  useful  character.  At  one  period  of  the 
subsequent  Indian  war,  the  duty  of  providing  means  of 
defence  was  devolved  almost  wholly  upon  them. 


92  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

The  office  still  exists,  curtailed  indeed  of  much  of  its 
power,  but  now  it  is  generally  united  with  anotlier  which 
has  no  small  influence  upon  the  comforts  and  happiness 
of  individuals  :  —  the  selectmen  are  now  almost  invariably 
overseers  of  the  poor  ;  that  office  is  distinct  from  the 
other,  but  not  incompatible. 

The  establishment  of  this  office  proves  that  our  fore- 
fathers knew  well  what  institutions  to  create,  and  what 
were  best  adapted  to  the  state  of  that  society  which  they 
were  to  guard  and  protect.  And  it  is  by  no  means  cer- 
tain that  the  rights  of  citizens  are  better  preserved  by 
transferring  the  jurisdiction  of  cases  civil  and  criminal  to 
justices  of  the  peace. 

Provision  for  the  Support  of  the  Poor. 

By  a  law  passed  in  1642,  each  township  was  required 
to  make  competent  provision  for  the  support  of  their  poor, 
'  as  they  shall  find  most  convenient  and  suitable  for  them- 
selves, by  an  order  and  general  agreement  in  a  public 
town-meeting.' 

Any  person  brought  in  or  received  by  an  inhabitant  of 
any  town,  '  and  apparently  likely  to  be  chargeable  to  the 
township  without  the  consent  of  the  townsmen,  such  per- 
sons as  brought  them  shall  discharge  the  town  of  them.' 

Any  person  coming  out  of  England  or  elsewhere,  '  and 
bringing  any  who  by  disease,  impotency  or  otherwise,  is 
likely  to  become  chargeable,  was  required  to  discharge 
the  township  of  them.'  If  any  so  brought  should  fall 
sick  or  become  diseased,  being  indentured  as  servants, 
the  master  was  required  to  support  them  '  during  the  time 
of  the  covenant,  and  after  that  to  be  relieved  by  the  town- 
ship where  he  is.' 

Children  or  elder  persons  sent  out  of  the  town  '  to  be 
nursed,  educated,   or   doctored,'  and   falHng  into  want, 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  93 

were  to  receive   their  relief  from   the  towns   from   which 
they  were  sent. 

Any  person  living  and  quietly  settled  in  eny  township, 
and  not  excepted  against  within  three  months  after  his 
coming,  was  to  be  reputed  an  inhabitant  of  that  town. 
This  provision  by  a  law  of  1644,  was  ordered  to  be  so 
construed,  that  it  should  apply  only  to  poor  persons,  and 
should  not  impart  any  political  rights.  The  children  of 
those  who  received  relief  from  the  town  were  to  be  put  to 
work  in  fitting  employments.'  By  a  subsequent  law  in 
1659,  three  men  in  each  town  were  authorized  '  to  put 
them  out,  and  to  provide  for  their  comfortable  mainte- 
nance.' 

Schools. 

The  expense  of  the  school  being  £33  per  annum,  was 
charged  upon  the  profits  of  the  cape  fishery,  '  until  such 
time  as  the  minds  of  the  freemen  be  known  concerning 
it,  which  will  be  returned  to  the  next  court  of  election.' 
This  order  was  passed  in  June,  1673.  At  the  next  court 
of  election  in  June,  1674,  the  opinions  of  a  majority  of 
the  freemen  having  appeared  to  have  been  favorable  to 
the  above  order,  and  to  its  continuance, '  if  a  competent 
number  of  scholars  shall  appear  to  be  devoted  thereunto,' 
the  court  decided  the  competent  number  to  be  '  eight  or 
ten,'  and  confirmed  the  profits  of  the  cape  fishery  to  the 
school,  '  and  that  there  be  no  further  demands  besides  the 
said  profits  of  the  cape  fishery,  demanded  of  the  country 
for  the  maintenance  of  said  school.' 

Previous  to  June,  1674,  it  does  not  appear  that  any 
other  provision  than  this  was  made  for  the  support  of 
schools.  Only  one  public  school  had  been  established 
in  the  colony,  which  was  at  Plymouth. 


94  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

The  Support  of  Public  Worship  and  the  Maintenance 
OF  Ministers. 

In  1655,  the  first  Legislative  proceedings  were  had 
with  respect  to  the  maintenance  of  minsters. 

'  Whereas,  (say  the  court  in  a  preamble,)  there  hath 
been  many  complaints  for  want  of  due  maintenance  for 
ministers,  (as  some  have  reported.)  It  is  therefore  enacted 
by  the  court,  that  no  pastor  or  teacher  of  any  congrega- 
tion shall  remove  before  his  complaint  hath  been  tendered 
to  the  magistrates,  and  they  have  heard  both  sides.  That 
upon  such  complaint,  if  there  appears  lo  be  a  real,  defect 
in  the  hearers  of  the  ministers  so  complaining,  the  magis- 
trates shall  use  all  gentle  means  to  upbraid  them  to  do 
their  duty  therein,  but  if  any  of  them  shall  not  be  thereby 
reclaimed,  but  shall  resist  through  plain  obstinacy  against 
an  ordinance  of  God,  then  it  shall  be  in  the  power  of  the 
magistrates  to  use  such  other  means  as  may  put  them  upon 
their  duty.' 

For  a  long  period  the  disinterested  zeal  of  the  minis- 
ters, and  the  fervent  .piety  of  the  people,  prevented  the 
necessity  of  legal  contracts  between  them.  The  engage- 
ment between  the  minister  and  his  congregation  was  held 
to  be  of  a  spiritual  and  not  a  civil  character.  But  zeal 
alone  could  not  furnish  bread,  and  the  wants  of  the  min- 
ister did  not  diminish  in  the  same  ratio  with  the  attach- 
ment of  the  people.  A  wild  spirit  (engendered  perhaps 
in  England,)  had  gone  forth,  which  proclaimed  war  upon 
carnal  learning,  and  relied  for  religious  instruction  upon 
the  miserable  crudities  of  gifted  men,'  upon  whose  minds 
it  was  fondly  hoped  a  divine  influence  was  operating, 
which  superseded  the  necessity  of  '  book  learning,'  and 
that  the  word  of  the  Lord  might  as  well  proceed  from  the 
lips  of  such  rude,  unlettered  expounders,  as  from  such  as 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  95 

had  by  their  midnight  lamps  and  painful  watches,  mas- 
tered all  the  intricacies  of  the  primeval  languages  of  the 
scriptures,  and  expounded  the  holy  writings  after  a  critical 
investigation  of  their  analogies,  and  a  careful  comparison 
of  the  evidence.  Still  the  court  were  unwilling  to  pro- 
ceed further  than  to  upbraid  ;  a  poor  resource  when  en- 
countered by  overweening  spiritual  pride  operating  upon 
ignorance,  and  envy,  and  avarice  ;  and  displayed  in  rail- 
ing and  abuse,  and  so  the  court  found  it,  for  in  1657  they 
were  constrained  to  pass  the  following  law. 

'  Whereas  the  General  Court  taking  into  their  serious 
consideration  the  great  defect  that  either  is,  or  like  to  be 
in  the  several  townships  of  this  jurisdiction  for  want  of  an 
able  godly  teaching  ministry  and  the  great  prejudice  to 
the  souls  of  many  like  to  ensue  ;  and  being  desirous  ac- 
cording to  our  duly  that  such  defects  shall  not  be  for  want 
of  due  encouragement  to  such  as*  should  be  employed  in 
so  good  a  work  of  the  Lord,  for  his  honor  and  the  good 
of  souls,  and  in  consideration  that  inasmuch  as  the  several 
townships  granted  by  the  government  was  that  such  a 
company  might  be  received  as  should  maintain  the  public 
worship  of  God  among  them,  do  therefore  judge  that  the 
whole,  both  church  and  town,  are  mutually  engaged  to 
support  the  same,  and  do  therefore  order  and  agree  that 
in  whatsoever' township  there  is  or  shall  be  an  able,  godly 
teaching  ministry  which  is  approved  by  this  government, 
that  then  some  men  be  chosen  by  the  inhabitants,  or  11 
case  of  their  neglect,  chosen  by  any  three  or  more  of  the 
magistrates  to  make  a  just  and  equal  proportion  upon  the 
estates  of  the  inhabitants,  according  to  their  abilities  to 
make  any  such  convenient  *  maintenance  for  his 

comfortable  attendance  on   his  work,  as  shall  be  agreed 

*  Illegible. 


QQ  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

upon  by  the  church  in  such  township  where  any  is,  with 
the  consent  of  the  rest  of  the  inhabitants  if  it  maybe  had, 
or  by  the  magistrates  aforesaid  in  case  of  their  apparent 
neglect,  and  that  distress  according  as  in  other  just  cases 
be  made  upon  such  as  refuse  to  pay  his  or  their  proportion 
which  is  in  justice  due,  but  in  case  there  be  any  other 
way  which  any  township  do  or  shall  agree  that  may  effect 
the  end  aforesaid,  this  law  not  to  be  binding  to  them.  To 
be  explained,  those  that  only  such  person  or  persons  as 
refuse  to  clear  their  part  with  the  rest  of  the  church  or 
town  in  the  due  maintenance  and  support  of  the  ministry, 
this  law  to  be  in  force  only  to  them,  but  not  unto  others 
that  do  their  duty.' 

This  was  the  first  attempt  in  this  colony  to  enforce  the 
support  of  ministers  by  law  ;  this  law  or  order  is  so  ob- 
scurely worded  that  it  is  difficult  of  interpretation.  It  is 
very  questionable  whether  it  is  ever  expedient  to  exercise 
the  coercive  power  of  law  to  secure  the  support  of  minis- 
ters. True  indeed  it  is  in  ethics  and  religion  that  the 
'  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire,'  and  that  justice  is  to  be 
done  to  the  minister  as  well  as  to  others,  and  the  neglect 
so  to  do  is  a  breach  of  positive  moral  obligation.  Never- 
theless the  disputes  which  originate  from  such  causes  have 
a  powerful  effect  in  destroying  the  influence  of  the  order, 
and  money  for  such  purposes  forced  from  a  reluctant  hand, 
carries  with  it  ill  will,  hatred,  and  a  sense  of  oppression  ; 
such  compulsion  not  only  excites  a  strong  dislike  to  the 
system  which  tolerates  it,  but  by  association  to  religion 
itself,  the  very  purposes  for  which  a  ministry  is  instituted 
are  defeated,  and  a  religious  congregation  frequently 
exhibits  all  the  ferocious  and  angry  passipns  of  a  political 
faction.  The  empire  of  evil  instead  of  being  narrowed, 
is  enlarged,   and  there  is  a  wider  departure  amongst  pro- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  97 

fessed  Christians  from  the  real  spirit  of  Christianity,  than 
there  is  amongst  those 

'  Who  see  God  in  clouds, 
'  Or  hear  him  in  the  winds.' 

In  1657,  public  meetings  were  forbidden  to  be  '  ret  up 
in  the  government,'  only  such  as  the  court  shall  approve. 

In  July,  1607,  it  was  enacted  'that  such  townships 
where  occasions  ariseth  for  the  disturbing  upon  the  estates 
of  any  for  the  ministry,'  the  property  distressed  should  be 
delivered  by  the  constable  to  some  appointed  by  tne  town, 
and  in  case  of  no  a[)pointment  to  such  as  should  be  ap- 
pointed by  two  magistrates  '  to  dispose  of  it  as  they  shall 
see  cause.' 

The  support  of  ministers  having  been  provided  for  by 
taxes  or  rates  in  1657,  and  the  party  neglecting  to  pay 
made  liable  to  distress,  &.c,  '  yet  for  preventing  offence 
and  it  may  be  distress,'  the  Court  ordered  in  June,  1609, 
that  the  magistrates  and  selectmen  being  notified  of  a 
default,  should  be  empowered  to  summon  such  defaulter 
to  the  next  court,  and  ahierce  him  double  for  the  colony's 
use. 

Hitherto  the  ministers  had  gathered  the  rates  ;  this  in- 
judicious and   unpleasant  system   was  abolished  in    1670. 

The  Court  say,  '  Forasmuch  as  it  appeareth  to  be 
greatly  inconvenient  that  the  ministers  should  be  troubled 
to  gather  in  their  rates  for  maintenance,  and  to  be  an 
occasion  to  prejudice  some  persons  against  them  and  their 
ministry,'  two  meet  persons  were  to  be  appointed  to  collect 
the  rates.  '  Inciting  the  people  to  do  their  duty  in  that 
respect,  demanding  it  when  due,  and  if  need  be  by  pro- 
curing distraint  upon  the  estates  of  such  as  shall  neglect 
or  refuse  to  pay  the  same,'  provided  any  minister  shall 
scruple  to  receive  what  is  so  raised,  it  shall   nevertheless 

PART    II.  13 


98  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

be  gathered   as  abovesaid,  and  disposed  of  as   the  court 
shall  order  or  advise  for  the  good  of  the  place.' 

The  people  in  some  places  still  continuing  to  neglect 
to  provide  an  adequate  support  for  ministers  and  to  erect 
meeting-houses,  the  Court  in  1670,  passed  the  following 
law  and  preamble. 

♦  Whereas  it  hath  been  and  is  the  pious  care  and  true 
interest  of  this  court,  that  all  such  plantations  or  town- 
ships as  are  by  them  granted,  should  maintain  the  public 
Sabbath  worship  of  God  and  the  preaching  of  the  word, 
and  do  to  that  end  afford  them  such  due  proportions  of 
laws  as  may  accommodate  such  a  society  as  may  be  able 
to  maintain  the  same,  and  through  the  corruptions  or  sin- 
ful neglect  of  many,  or  most  of  the  inhabitants  of  some 
plantations  they  content  themselves  to  live  without  the 
ministry  of  the  word,  to  the  great  dishonor  of  God,  and 
danger  of  their  souls,  there  being  great  reason  to  fear  that 
many  may  be  actuated  therein  by  worldly  or  vicious  prin- 
ciples.' 

The  Court  therefore  enacted  that  in  townships  where 
no  ministers  resided,  '  especially  if  it  should  appear  that 
the  generality  of  the  inhabitants  are  remiss  in  the  obtain- 
ing of  one,'  the  General  Court  might  impose  upon  them 
a  certain  sum,  '  which  should  be  collected  as  rates,  and 
be  kept  as  a  stock  for  building  a  meeting-house,  or  for 
encouragement  for  a  minister  to  labor  amongst  them,  or 
other  such  pious  uses  as  the  Court  may  improve  it  for 
their  good.' 

Dartmouth  was  assessed  £15,  to  be  in  readiness  when 
collected,  « towards  the  uses  above  expressed.' 

In  June,  1675,  it  was  enacted  that  a  meeting-house 
should  be  erected  in  every  town  in  the  jurisdiction,  and 
any  town  refusing  or  neglecting  so  to  do,  the  governor  or 
magistrates  were  empowered  to  appoint  some   person  or 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  99 

persons  to  build  it,  '  according  to  the  necessity  and  ability 
of  the  people,'  the  charge  to  be  defrayed  by  the  inhabit- 
ants and  proprietors  of  the  town. 

Licensed  Houses,  &c. 

In  1668,  it  was  enacted  that  none  should  sell  liquors 
unless  licensed,  and  they  were  to  pay  for  their  license 
'  according  to  the  capacity  of  the  place  where  they  live.' 

Plymouth,  -        -         £10  00  00  Barnstable,  -         -         £2  00  00 

Duxbury,  -         -         1  10  00  Yarmouth,  -         -         1   10  00 

Scituate,  -         -               2  10  00  Bridgewater,  -         -             1  00  00 

Taunton,  -         -            2  00  00  Rehoboth,  -         -         1  10  00 

The  licensed  taverners  were  forbidden  '  to  allow  pro- 
fane singing,  dancing,  or  revelling,  under  penalty.' 

In  1668,  all  unlicensed  persons  were  forbidden  to  bring 
more  than  six  gallons  of  strong  liquors  into  the  colony  at 
once,  except  '  it  appear  that  any  man  of  quality  whose 
condition  calleth  for  further  expenses  in  his  family,'  should 
not  come  within  the  operation  of  the  law,  unless  he  tran- 
scended in  his  quantity  the  limits  of  ordinary  house- 
keeping. 

In  June,  1674,  innkeepers  were  forbidden  to  sell  liquor 
on  the  Sabbath,  and  were  required  to  clear  their  houses  of 
all  town-dwellers  and  strangers  drinking  there,  except 
lodgers,  '  by  the  shutting  in  of  the  daylight,  under  pen- 
alty of  55.' 

Military  Laws. 

In  1645,  the  officers  in  each  town  were  required  to  see 
that  the  arms  were  proper,  and  '  to  present  those  which 
were  defective.' 

In  the  same  year  it  was  ordered  by  the  council  of  war 
that  the  soldiers  maimed  in  the  service  should  be  supported 
through  life  at  the  public  expense. 


100  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

The  government  or  any  three  of  the  assistants  were 
authorized  to  '  press  horses,'  and  in  1G44,  it  was  ordered 
that  compensation  should  be  made  for  horses  lost  in  the 
service. 

In  1642,  the  chief  officer  in  each  town  was  required  to 
appoint  the  days  of  training,  and  in  1644,  the  rate  of  fines 
was  established  by  law. 

In  1641,  each  town  was  required  to  provide  a  barrel  of 
powder,  and  lead  bullets  answerable. 

In  1642,  it  was  enacted  that  in  time  of  fear  and  danger, 
or  sudden  assault  of  an  enemy,  the  chief  military  officer 
in  each  town  should  be  empowered  to  call  the  soldiers  of 
the  town  together,  and  put  them  in  a  posture  of  defence. 
The  soldiers  were  required  to  obey  and  follow  their  di- 
rections in  keeping  vvaich  and  ward,  '  provided  that  the 
ordinary  watch  be  set  and  appointed  with  the  magistrate's 
approbation  of  that  town,'  and  the  smiths  were  ordered  by 
the  council  of  war  under  compulsion,  to  amend  and  repair 
all  deficient  arms  brought  to  t[)em  speedily,  '  to  be  paid  in 
wheat  or  butter,  and  smiths  refusing,  to  answer  it  at  their 
peril.' 

It  1646,  it  was  enacted  that  captains,  lieutenants,  and 
ensigns,  being  established  in  their  places  by  the  authority 
and  approbation  of  the  Court,  '  should  not  resign  without 
their  consent,  under  penalties,'  and  if  such  officer  ne- 
glected to  train  his  men,  '  or  otherwise  neglected,  he 
should  be  fined  10s.  for  each  default.'  And  it  was  also 
enacted  '  in  case  any  chief  officer  was  wanted  in  any 
town,  such  was  required  to  present  two  or  three  persons 
the  fittest  they  had  for  the  place,  and  such  chief  officer 
should  be  appointed  by  the  Court,  and  such  chief  officers 
their  under  officers,  with  the  consent  of  that  body.' 

In  the  same  law,  towns  were  required  to  provide  '  some 
firelocks,  and  two  swords  for  every  thirty  men,  and  some 
proportion  for  a  greater  or  less  number.' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  colonial  government,  the  office 
of  captain  was  the  iiighest  military  office,  but  in  1653,  the 
military  force  was  placed  under  a  major's  command,  and 
so  it  continued  until  the  Indian  war  in  1675. 

The  council  of  war  existing  by  usage  previously,  in 
1653,  was  established  by  law.  The  Court  in  assigning 
their  reasons  for  this  measure  say,  '  In  regard  to  the  many 
appearances  of  danger  to  the  country  by  enemies,  and  the 
great  necessity  of  counsel  and  advice,  in  which  respect 
the  Court  thought  meet  to  make  choice  of  a  council  of 
war  consisting  of  eleven  persons,  whose  names  are  extant 
in  the  records  of  the  Court,  which  said  eleven  or  any  five 
of  them  being  orderly  called  together,  their  acts  to  be 
accounted  in  force,  and  they  to  be  continued  in  their 
places  until  others  be  elected.  To  be  orderly  called  is 
meant  to  be  summoned  by  the  governor,  or  major,  or  the 
president  of  the  Council,  or  his  deputy,  or  in  case  of  their 
absence,  any  two  magistrates  of  the  Council  of  war.' 

In  1659,  they  were  authorized  '  to  issue  out  warrants  in 
his  majesty's  name  to  press  such  a  number  of  men  and 
horses  in  each  town  as  by  proportion  the  said  town  is  to 
setfo-rth;'  and  also  to  issue  the  like  warrants  for  arms 
and  provisions,  and  all  things  necessary.  Charges  to  be 
paid  proportionably  by  the  towns  by  rates  ;  '  and  to  give 
commission  to  any  chief  officer  under  charge,  either  in 
time  of  peace  or  War.' 

These  were  important  laws.  The  civil  government 
transferred  the  whole  power  of  military  legislation,  as  well 
as  the  executive  power,  so  far  as  it  applied  to  military 
appointments  and  regulations,  to  the  Council  of  War,  who 
in  the  military  department  of  the  government  were  made 
dictatorial. 

The  major  was  appointed  by  the  Council  of  War  and  his 
commission  was  signed  by  its  president.      He  was  consti- 


101 


IQ2  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

tuted  chief  officer  over  the  military  companies  of  the 
jurisdiction,  and  was  required  to  obey  the  instructions  of 
the  Council.  All  captains  and  subordinate  officers  and  all 
others  were  required  to  obey  him.  He  was  instructed  to 
take  the  command  of  all  the  military  companies  in  his 
jurisdiction,  '  and  to  see  that  they  were  orderly  trained  in 
the  use  of  arms.'  To  inspect  the  arms.  To  appoint  the 
guards  and  watches  necessary  for  the  honor  and  safety  of 
the  government.  With  the  advice  of  the  Council  he  was 
to  appoint  the  general  musters  of  such  companies  as  could 
conveniently  meet  together.  In  case  of  insurrection  or 
invasion,  with  the  advice  of  the  Council,  he  was  to  place 
the  companies  in  the  best  posture  of  defence.  In  all 
matters  relating  to  discipline,  he  was  to  follow  the  in- 
structions of  the  Council,  and  advise  with  them  on  all 
occasions. 

In  the  same  year  (1653)  the  Council  of  War  ordered 
that  drums  and  halberds  should  be  provided  by  the  towns, 
and  also  half  pikes,  in  the  proportion  of  twenty  for  eighty 
men.  They  further  ordered  that  the  clerks  of  the  com- 
panies should  be  sworn,  and  prescribed  the  form  of  the 
oath,  and  afterwards,  in  1660,  they  directed  that  the  towns 
should  furnish  the  pikes,  but  that  every  soldier  '  should 
provide  at  his  own  expense,  a  musket  and  a  fix.' 

In  1655,  they  ordered  'that  all  the  Scots  and  Irish 
should  bear  arms  and  train  as  the  other  inhabitants,  ex- 
cepting such  as  are  servants  from  month  to  month.' 

In  1658,  they  established  a  colonial  troop  of  horse,  '  to 
be  well  appointed  and  furnished,'  which  was  to  be  raised 
at  large,  and  maintained  by  the  government.  Plymouth 
was  required  to  furnish  3  men;  Duxbury  2;  Scituate  4; 
■'  Sandwich  3;  Taunton  3;  Yarmouth  3;  Barnstable  3; 
Marshfield  3  ;  Rehoboth  4  ;  Eastham  3  ;  Bridgewater,  2  — 
in  all  33.     This  troop  was  exempted  from  infantry   ser- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  ^03 

vice,  and  in  1G60  the  major  was  authorized  to  admit  volun- 
teers, so  as  to  increase  the  number  of  the  company  to 
fortyeight.     All  such  were  to  serve  three  years  at  least. 

In  1668,  the  Council  of  War  were  authorized  to  release 
any  father  having  two  sons  doing  military  duty. 

In  1668,  a  general  training  both  of  horse  and  foot  was 
ordered  on  the  second  week  of  October,  1669,  and  to  be 
held  in  succession  in  each  year  on  that  week,  first  at  Ply- 
mouth, then  at  Yarmouth,  and  then  at  Taunton  ;  every 
soldier  to  be  provided  with  powder,  '  to  be  improved  in 
the  said  expedition,  and  exercised  at  their  own  charge.' 

In  June,  1672,  the  troop  of  horse  was  divided  into  three 
squadrons,  each  to  be  under  the  command  of  the  three 
officers,  who  were  to  exercise  each  squadron  '  in  the  year.' 
They  were  required  to  keep  lists  of  their  several  squad- 
rons, '  and  see  that  they  keep  horses,  arms,  ammunition, 
and  accoutrements  for  the  service.'  Each  trooper  was 
required  to  provide  himself  with  a  '  fix,  carbine,  or  other 
horseman's  piece,  betwixt  this  and  the  next  election  court, 
or  return  into  the  foot  company  where  he  dwells.'  And 
in  July,  1673,  it  was  enacted  that  the  commissioned  offi- 
cers in  each  town  as  often  as  they  should  see  cause,  should 
make  search  and  take  notice  of  the  defects  in  arms  and 
ammunition, 'which  defects  being  delivered  to  the  con- 
stable,' the  constables  with  the  clerks  of  each  company 
were  authorized  to  levy  the  fines  by  distress  for  the  com- 
pany's use  ;  the  law  was  also  made  applicable  to  ancient 
persons  and  absentees  not  of  the  train-band,  their  fines  to 
be  for  the  use  of  the  poor  of  their  respective  towns. 

In  September,  1673,  it  was  ordered  that  the  troop  of 
horse  '  be  sixty,'  who  were  required  to  have  '  horse-pistols, 
carbines,  with  other  accoutrements  fit  for  service,'  and 
for  the  better  raising  thereof,  it  shall  be  propounded  in 
each    town-meeting   to  see  who  will  voluntarily  tender 


104  MEMOIR   OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

their  service  therein,  and  the  names  of  such  volunteers 
shall  be  returned  to  October  court,  who  are  empowered 
to  certify  or  accept  the  numbers  of  each  town  respectively 
as  they  shall  see  cause. 

In  June,  1674,  it  was  enacted  'that  it  be  signified  to 
the  towns  that  the  Court  expects  that  the  troopers  in  each 
town  be  as  many  in  nutnber  as  before,  and  that  they  be 
provided  with  arms  and  accoutrements  fit  for  that  service, 
and  that  their  names  be  sent  in  to  the  July  court.' 

In  June,  I6TG,  the  troopers  or  dra^oniers  generally  de- 
clining to  arm  themselves  according  to  the  last  order,  the 
Court  required  that  they  should  return  to  the  foot  com- 
panies and  do  service  therein  ;'  and  so  the  troop  was 
dissolved. 

Laws  relating  to  the  Indians. 

In  1643,  it  was  enacted  that  it  should  be  holden  'un- 
lawful and  of  dangerous  consequence,  and  it  hath  been 
our  constant  custom  from  our  very  first  beginning,  that 
no  person  should  purchase,  rent,  or  hire  any  lands,  her- 
bage, wood,  or  timber,  of  the  Indians,  but  by  the  magis- 
trate's consent.'  For  every  transgression  £5  was  forfeited 
for  every  acre  so  purchased,  rented  or  hired,  and  five  times 
the  value  of  the  wood  and  the  timber  to  the  colony's  use. 

In  1660,  it  was  enacted  that  this  law  should  be  so  inter- 
preted, as  to  prevent  any  from  taking  Indian  land  as  a  gift. 

By  these  laws  every  practicable  precaution  was  taken 
to  secure  the  rights  of  the  Indians,  and  to  prevent  the 
improper  and  deceptive  practices  of  individuals. 

To  secure  the  peace  and  safety  of  the  colony,  all  per- 
sons were  forbidden  either  to  give  or  sell  arms  and  the 
munitions  of  war  to  the  Indians,  or  boats,  'excepting  to 
such  as  had  been  servants  for  some  years,  and  in  a  good 
measure  civilized,  and  unless  the  sale  to  such  should  be 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  105 

approved  by  the  governor  and  assistants.'  In  1652,  the 
sale  of  casks  to  the  Indians  was  prohibited,  and  in  1656, 
that  of  barques,  boats,  and  horses,  under  the  penalty  of 
the  value  of  each  tenfold. 

In  1652,  the  Court  undertook  to  prohibit  the  Indians 
from  working,  fishing,  fowling,  planting,  killing,  or  carry- 
ing burthens  on  the  Lord's  day,  and  in  case  of  transgression 
they  were  ordered  to  appear  before  the  Court;  in  1656, 
they  were  prohibited  from  discharging  guns  in  the  night 
time  or  on  the  Lord's  day. 

The  policy  of  a  law  which  should  have  inflicted  any 
severe  penalties  for  a  violation  of  the  Sabbath  upon  a 
people  who  did  not  acknowledge  its  sanctity,  may  well  be 
questioned.  Had  its  execution  occasioned  any  serious 
disasters  to  the  colony  by  exciting  the  ire  or  the  revenge 
of  the  Indians,  the  government  could  hardly  have  justified 
their  overzeal  to  their  own  consciences.  But  they  did 
not  for  this  offence  provide  a  specific  punishment,  but 
wisely  left  themselves  a  discretion  which  might  be  regu- 
lated by  circumstances. 

In  1660,  the  Court  assumed  a  power  of  a  character  yet 
more  arrogant  than  the  last ;  but  this  was  a  measure  of 
sound  policy,  and  a  precaution  in  their  circumstances 
dictated  by  that  all  controlling  law,  self-preservation. 
They  say,  '  Inasmuch  as  complaint  is  made  that  many 
Indians  press  into  divers  places  of  this  jurisdiction, 
whereby  some  of  the  plantations  begin  to  be  oppressed 
by  them,  they  therefore  enact  that  no  strange  or  foreign 
Indians  shall  be  permitted  to  come  into  any  places  of  this 
jurisdiction  so  as  to  make  their  residence  there,  and  that 
notice  be  given  to  the  several  sagamores  to  prevent  the 
same.' 

PART    II.  14 


1 05  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

In  1665,  the  law  prohibiting  the  sale  of  powder  and 
shot  to  the  Indians  was  repealed,  but  in  July,  1667,  it  was 
reenacted. 

In  1665,  another  law  was  passed  restricting  the  sale  of 
strong  liquors  to  the  Indians.  By  a  law  of  this  year  they 
were  required  to  fence  their  lands. 

In  1669,  the  order  prohibiting  the  sale  of  powder  and 
shot  to  the  Indians  was  repealed. 

In  July,  1673,  the  Court  ordered  that  the  Indians  espe- 
cially young  men,  running  in  debt  to  the  English  for  ne- 
cessary articles  should  be  compelled  '  to  work  it  out  at 
reasonable  rates,  if  they  have  not  else  to  discharge  their 
just  debts.' 

Pledges  taken  of  the  Indians  for  silver  or  drink,  were 
upon  complaint  of  the  Indians  to  be  forfeited.  All  per- 
sons were  forbidden  to  sell  beer  to  the  Indians  under  a 
penalty  of  5s.  '  And  if  any  Indian  be  found  distempered 
with  drink,  and  be  brought  before  the  Court  in  court  time, 
or  before  any  magistrate,  or  in  towns  where  no  magistrate 
is,  before  any  of  the  selectmen,  and  if  capable  will  not 
declare  of  whom  he  had  his  drink,  he  shall  be  forthwith 
whipt,  and  his  accusation  of  any  person  shall  be  proof 
against  them,  except  they  shall  char  themselves  by  their 
oath,  as  in  case  of  liquors  is  provided,  and  if  it  manifestly 
appears  that  such  Indians  do  wrongfully  accuse  any  person, 
they  shall  be  severely  whipt  for  their  drunkenness  and 
false  accusation.' 

In  June,  1674,  it  was  enacted  by  the  Court  'that 
whereas  controversies  do  arise  between  the  English  and 
the  Indians  that  are  brought  to  the  trial  of  the  several 
courts  of  this  government,  and  it  is  observed  that  the  In- 
dians would  be  greatly  disadvantaged  if  no  testimony  in 
such  case  should  be  excepted  but  on  oath,  this  Court 
orders  that  any  court  of  this  jurisdiction   before  whom 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  107 

such  tryal  may  come,  shall  not  be  strictly  tyed  up  to  such 
testimonies  on  oath  as  the  common  law  requireth,  but  may 
therein  act  and  determine  in  a  way  of  charity,  valuing 
testimony  not  sworn  on  both  sides  according  to  their  judg- 
ments and  consciences.' 

Indians  living  idly  and  refusing  to  pay  their  just  debts 
after  conviction,  were  required  to  serve  their  creditors  or 
some  one  else  until  the  debt  was  paid,  at  the  rate  of  12c?. 
each  day  in  summer,  and  6d.  in  winter  with  their  diet ; 
running  away,  by  order  from  two  magistrates  or  the  select- 
men of  the  town,  they  might  be  sold  for  the  satisfaction 
of  the  debt  and  charges.  The  selectmen  or  constable  in 
each  town  upon  complaint  were  authorised  '  to  put  out' 
young  Indians  living  idly,  '  to  some  persons  as  shall  keep 
them  to  work  and  not  to  abuse  them  ;  running  away,  to 
forfeit  double  for  the  time  they  are  absent.'  Stealing 
from  the  English,  they  were  to  restore  fourfold  either  by 
service  or  sale,  at  the  discretion  of  two  of  the  magis- 
trates. 

Crimes  and  Punishments. 

In  1645,  a  law  was  passed  to  punish 'the  crime  of  forging 
deeds  and  writings,  '  touching  the  property  and  title  of 
lands,'  by  which,  the  offender  was  to  be  punished  with 
*  double  damages,'  and  fine,  and  in  case  of  inability  to 
pay  the  fine,  whipping  and  burning  in  the  face  with  a 
Roman  F  was  substituted. 

The  keepers  of  records  being  public  officers  who 
should  wilfully  '  steal,  embezzle,  or  make  way  with  such 
records,  or  who  should  alter  by  erasures  or  additions, 
except  trivial  ones,'  were  to  be  disfranchised  and  burnt 
in  the  face. 

And  any  one  attempting  to  corrupt  such  officer  for  such 
purposes,  was  liable  to  be  punished  by  a  fine  of  £40,  or 
by  whipping. 


108  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

In  1658,  the  crime  of  adultery  appears  to  be  first  no- 
ticed in  the  laws.  The  punishment  of  this  offence  was 
'  two  whippings,  once  while  the  court  before  v\hom  the 
••  offending  party  was  convicted  should   be   in   session,  and 

once  at  any  other  time  which  they  should  direct ;  and 
the  party  so  convicted  was  to  wear  two  capital  letters,  A 
D  cut  in  cloth  and  sewed  on  their  uppermost  garment,  on 
their  arm  or  back,  and  if  they  removed  the  letters,  they 
were  again  to  be  publicly  whipped.' 

The  court  had  previously  enacted  in  1645,  '  that  fornica- 
tion should  be  punished  with  whipping,  a  fine  of  £10,  or 
three  days  imprisonment,  at  the  pleasure  of  the  court.  If 
however  the  oflending  parties  are  or  will  be  married,'  then 
the  fine  of  £10  for  both  only,  and  three  days'  imprison- 
ment, '  and  by  a  lawful  contract  the  mutual  consent  of 
parents  or  guardians  being  obtained,  and  a  solemn  con- 
tract of  marriage  in  due  time  before  two  competent  wit- 
nesses, if  after  such  contract  such  offence  should  follow, 
50s.  fine  to  each,  and  if  the  court  plead  imprisonment  for 
three  days,  in  case  of  inability  or  refusal  to  pay  the  fine, 
or  whipping.' 

In  1645,  a  law  was  passed  to  punish  apprentices  for 
stealing  or  embezzling  their  masters'  goods.  For  the  first 
offence,  to  make  double  satisfaction  either  by  payment  or 
servitude.  For  the  second  to  make  double  satisfaction, 
and  either  to  find  sureties  for  good  behavior,  or  to  receive 
a  whipping. 

In  1663,  four  pence  a  day  was  allowed  for  the  support 
of  each  prisoner  confined  for  felony  or  misdemeanor. 

Trespasses,  &,c. 

The  damage  arising  from  the  wilful  burning  of  fence 
was  to  be  paid,  and  the  offender  bound  to  his  good  be- 
haviour. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  x  109 

The  damages  from  breaking  down  fences  or  gates,  or  a 
common  gate  or  bridge,  '  was  to  be  made  good,'  and  the 
oflender  fined  505.  for  the  first  offence,  and  for  the  second 
£o,  and  binding  for  good  behaviour. 

The  offence  of  '  wilfully  defacing  and  removing  land 
marks  or  bounds,'  was  made  punishable  by  fines  from  20s. 
to  £5,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  offence.' 

June,  1G74,  neat  cattle,  horse  kind,  sheep,  or  swine, 
being  impounded  for  trespass  or  damage  done,  if  the 
owner  give  to  the  pound  keeper  security  to  satisfy  the 
damage,  viz.  engage  before  two  witnesses,  or  give  under 
his  hand-  to  the  keeper  a  promise  of  satisfaction  for  the 
damages  ;  the  keeper  being  paid  his  fees,  might  release 
them,  and  in  June,  1675,  cattle,  swine,  &.c.  doing  damage 
a  mile  from  the  pound,  might  be  impounded  by  the  indi- 
viduals damaged  in  their  own  enclosures  for  twentyfour 
hours,  giving  notice  to  the  owner  in  six  hours,  and  he  fail- 
ing to  make  satisfaction,  they  were  to  be  driven  to  the 
town  pound,  the  one  who  impounded  to  make  oath  as  to 
the  particular  cattle,  &c.  that  did  the  damage  before  a 
magistrate  or  selectman,  (if  required,)  and  that  'shall  be 
taken  as  suflficient  proof  without  other  proof. 

Fences  for  securing  corn  were  required  to  be  four  feet 
high,  '  or  otherwise  sufliicient  by  the  judgment  of  indiffer- 
ent men.' 

Slander  and  Spreading  False  News. 

In  1660  It  was  enacted  '  that  any  person  of  the  years 
of  discretion,  (sixteen,)  who  shall  wilfully  make  or  publish 
any  lie  which  may  be  injurious  to  the  public  weal,  or 
tending  to  the  damage  or  hurt  of  any  particular  person, 
or  with  intent  to  deceive  or  abuse  the  people  with  any 
false  news  or  reports,'  shall  be  fined  lOs.  and  in  default  of 
payment  set  in  the  stocks. 


110  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

In  1669,  any  publishing  scandalous  matter  to  any  but  a 
magistrate  or  grand  juror,  it  should  be  accounted  defama- 
tion. 

Sports,   Offences    against  Religion,    Public    Morals, 
Violation   of  the    Sabbath,  &c. 

In  1645,  a  law  was  passed  to  punish  masquerading,  and 
strange  to  say,  the  preamble  to  this  law  discloses  that  such 
a  practice  existed  amongst  the  austere  puritans  of  Ply- 
mouth, the  fact  being  positively  asserted. 

'  Whereas,  (says  the  preamble,)  some  abuse  hath  for- 
merly broken  out  amongst  us  by  disguising,  wearing  visors, 
and  strange  apparel,  to  lascivious  and  evil  purposes.'  The 
punishment  was  a  fine  of  5Cs.  for  '  first  default ;'  for  the 
second  a  public  whipping,  or  binding  to  good  behaviour, 
at  the  discretion  of  the  court. 

In  1655,  card  playing  was  punished  by  a  fine  of  50s. 
Servants  or  children  playing  at  cards,  dice,  or  other  un- 
lawful games,  for  the  first  offence  to  be  corrected  by 
their  parents  or  masters,  '  for  the  second  to  be  '  publicly 
whipped.' 

In  the  same  year  a  law  was  passed,  by  which  a  magis- 
trate at  his  discretion  was  authorized  to  inflict  corporal 
punishment,  '  so  it  extend  not  to  life  or  limb,'  on  all  '  who 
denied  the  scriptures  to  be  a  rule  of  life.' 

Villifying  any  church  or  ordinance  was  punished  by  a 
fine  of  10s.  Profaning  the  Lord's  day  by  a  fine  of  10s. 
or  a  public  whipping.  Neglecting  to  attend  public  wor- 
ship on  each  Lord's  day  by  a  fine  of  10s. 

In  165S,  '  whereas  complaint  is  made  of  great  abuses  of 
profaning  the  Lord's  day  by  travelling,  both  horse  and 
foot,  by  bearing  of  burthens  and  carrying  of  packs,  to  the 
great  offence  of  the  godly  and  well  affected  amongst  us  ; 
enacted   therefore,  that  such  offenders  shall  be  appre- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  1 1 1 

hended  by  the  constable  and  fined  20s.  or  set  in  the  stocks 
four  hours,  unless  they  can  give  a  sufficient  reason  for  so 
doing. 

In  1665,  persons  '  who  behaved  themselves  profanely 
by  being  without  doors  at  the  meeting-houses  on  the  Lord's 
days  in  time  of  exercise,  and  there  misdemeaning  them- 
selves by  jestings,  sleepings,  or  the  like,'  were  to  be  ad- 
monished by  the  constables  ;  if  they  persisted  they  were 
lobe  set  in  the  stocks,  and  if  still  unreclaimed,  their  names 
were  to  be  returned  to  the  court. 

In  the  same  year  the  magistrates  were  authorized  to 
take  cognizance  of  misdemeanors  without  presentment  by 
the  grand  inquest,  and  were  empowered  to  '  proceed  and 
determine  them'  by  fine  or  otherwise  ;  and  a?  no  house  of 
correction  was  provided,  any  two  magistrates  were  author- 
ized after  examination  to  sentence  to  the  stocks  or  whip- 
ping '  such  as  not  only  live  idly  and  unprofitably,  but  are 
otherwise  vicious  and  wicked  in  their  carriage  to  their 
parents  or  otherwise.' 

In  1665,  the  constables  were  ordered  to  return  the  names 
of  those  who  should  play,  or  sleep,  or  smoke  tobacco 
about  the  meeting-house  on  the  Lord's  day. 

In  1669,  all  who  had  committed  uncleanness  in  another 
colony,  flying  to  Plymouth,  were  ordered  to  be  sent  back 
to  the  colony  from  which  they  escaped,  for  punishment. 

June,  1674,  horse  racing  was  ordered  to  be  punished  by 
the  stocks,  or  by  a  fine  of  55. 

In  1646,  the  smoking  of  tobacco  '  in  the  streets  or  about 
haystacks,  or  barns,  or  public  places,'  was  pr(diibited. 

Laws  Relating  to  Lands. 

In  1643,  it  was  enacted  '  that  persons  holding  as  joint 
tenants  with  others,  and  dying,  their  heirs  and  assigns  not 
to  be  deprived,  but  to  have  their  proportions  equally.' 


112  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

In  1646,  tlie  assistants  were  required  to  keep  a  book  to 
record  conveyances  with  all  convenient  sjjeed,  and  that 
the  wife  come  and  consent  and  acknowledge  thereto, '  but 
all  sales  made  before  the  law,  to  be  good  without  the 
wife's  acknowledgment.' 

In  1649,  it  was  required  that  surveyors  of  lands  and 
measurers  should  be  sworn. 

In  1654,  every  town  was  required  to  provide  a  book  for 
recording  such  lands  as  are  possessed,  but  no  written  evi- 
dence of  title  upon  the  testimony  of  witnesses  before  such 
as  the  town  shall  appoint  to  liear  such  evidence,  which 
shall  be  five  in  number  of  the  same  town,  and  what  the 
said  five  or  any  three  of  them  being  met  together,  shall 
conclude  of,  they  shall  cause  the  town  clerk  to  enter  the 
same  in  the  tenure  book,  and  to  be  published  that  if  any 
within  two  years  can  make  better  claim,  they  shall  come 
in,  and  in  case  none  do,  it  may  be  brought  to  the  court 
recorded  and  entered,  and  so  shall  be  reputed  sufficient 
evidence  in  future.' 

In  1658,  towns  were  required  to  ascertain  the  bounds 
of  every  inhabitant's  lands,  and  the  owners  to  put  up 
monuments  before  April  15,  1659, —  neglecting,  to  be 
fined. 

In  1666,  it  was  enacted  that  henceforth  nothing  be  en- 
tered on  the  records  of  the  court  respecting  lands  in 
reference  to  exchanges,  mortgages,  leases  or  other  con- 
veyances, but  such  as  shall  be  under  hand  and  seal  before 
witness,  and  that  all  such  deeds  be  exhibited  to  a  magis- 
trate according  to  order,  and  that  the  said  magistrate 
endorse  thereon,  and  the  same  also  be  entered,  and  no 
other.'  It  was  also  enacted  that  all  conveyances  of  land 
should  be  null  unless  acknowledged  before  the  governor 
or  one  of  the  assistants  within  six  months  from  the  time 
in  which  it  was  made,  but  the  law  not  to  be  construed  to 
affect  wills  or  testamentary  devises. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  113 

In  1668,  lands  belonging  to  non-residents  out  of  the 
colony,  and  situated  out  of  the  bounds  of  the  townships, 
were  to  be  taxed  like  other  lands. 

In  June,  1679,  it  was  enacted  that  evidence  of  land 
brought  from  any  town-book  to  be  placed  on  the  court  re- 
cords, '  shall  be  shewed  in  open  court  before  it  be  entered.' 

In  July,  1669,  '  for  quieting  men's  estates,  and  avoiding 
suits  at  law,'  the  court  enacted  that  all  persons  having 
had  for  the  space  of  ten  years  'any  right  or  title  of  entry 
or  cause  of  action  for  any  lands,  tenements,  or  heredita- 
ments,' now  detained  from  him,  should  bring  his  suit  within 
five  years  from  the  termination  of  the  session  of  that  court, 
or  be  barred.  And  none  should  commence  such  suit  or  make 
such  entry,  '  but  within  fifteen  years  next  after  the  rigfit 
and  title  should  have  descended  or  accrued,  and  failing 
to  do  that,  should  be  barred,  saving  to  minors,  feme  cov- 
erts non-composes,  prisoners,  or  persons  beyond  the  seas 
and  their  heirs,  their  rights  at  any  time  within  five  years 
after  they  come  of  age,  '  discouverture,^  coming  of  sound 
mind,  enlargement  out  of  prison,  or  coming  into  the  coun- 
try five  years  after  the  expiration  of  the  fifteen.' 

And  it  was  further  enacted  that  all  persons  who  had 
right,  title,  or  cause  of  action  for  any  lands,  tenements, 
or  hereditaments  hitherto  detained  for  the  space  of  twenty 
years,  and  shall  have  neglected  to  commence  a  suit  or  to 
make  an  entry,  or  having  had  sure  right,  title,  &c,  shall 
have  neglected,  &,c,  for  eighteen  years,  '  and  shall  neglect 
to  make  such  entry  into,  or  suit  within  two  years  from 
the  termination  of  the  session  of  the  court,  should  in 
either  case  be  barred  and  excluded  from  his  remedy,  ex- 
cepting as  in  the  above  cases  of  infancy,  &,c,  .according 
to  the  statute  of  England,  made  Anno  21,  Jacob!  Regis, 
chap.  16.'  '  It  having  been  the  usual  manner  and  custom  of 
this  court  to  have  recurred  as  much  as  might  be  to  the  laws 

PART  II.  15 


114  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

of  England  in  such   case,    wherein  there   is  no  other  law 
provided  by  the  court  more  suitable  to  our  condition.' 

In  June,  1674,  it  was  enacted  that  Indian  claims  to 
lands  in  possession  of  the  English  should  be  prosecuted 
within  a  year  after  the  claimant  should  come  of  age,  and 
that  the  Indians  should  be  notified  of  the  pendency  of  the 
suit. 

Commons,  &c. 

By  a  law  of  1673,  none  were  permitted  to  keep  above 
three  horses  on  the  commons.  One  having  £20  rateable 
estate  was  permitted  to  keep  one,  £40  two,  £60  three. 
Any  keeping  more,  '  it  was  made  lawful  fur  any  one  tres- 
passed upon  by  such  horses  to  kill  them  ;'  and  also  to  do 
it  in  case  of  trespass  '  on  their  corn,  or  other  enclosed 
lands  or  meadows  after  warning  given.' 

Laws  Respecting  Commerce,  the  Fisheries,  &c. 

In  1666,  No  horses  were  allowed  to  be  carried  out  of 
any  township  in  the  government  without  the  Qonsent  of 
the  governor,  under  a  penalty  of  £5. 

In  1668,  the  ex{)oitation  of  bark  and  timber  was  for- 
bidden, and  the  price  of  boards  was  fixed  at  45s.,  and  the 
importation  of  boards  was  forbidden. 

In  1670,  the  exportation  of  timber  '  unless  sawn  into 
boards,  wrought  out  into  shingles,  or  wrought  up  into 
casks,  boats,  barques,  or  other  vessels  of  burthen,'  was 
forbidden  under  penalty  of  forfeiture.  The  reason  of  this 
law  is  stated  in  the  preamble.  'Forasmuch  as  several 
towns  in  this  colony  are  very  much  straitened  for  build- 
ing timber,'  and  through  God's  providence,  some  other 
towns  are  well  accommodated  and  able  to  afford  them  a 
supply,  that  towns  so  straitened  be  not  necessitated  to 
fetch  their  supplies  from  another  jurisdiction,  whilst  we 
have  of  our  own.'     In  1673,  this  law  was  repealed. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  •  115 

The  exportation  of  bark  was  subjected  to  like  forfeit- 
ure, but  in  June,  1G73,  this  law  was  in  part  repealed,  so 
far  as  to  permit  persons  to  export  timber  growing  on  their 
own  lands  '  provided  they  make  it  appear  to  any  one  of 
the  selectmen  or  constables  of  their  respective  towns  by 
the  testimony  of  one  person  uninterested.' 

It  was  further  enacted  that  the  ship  carpenter  should  be 
under  the  same  restraint  as  others.  Any  officer  neglect- 
ing to  notice  transgressions  of  the  law  was  to  be  presented 
to  the  grand  inquest. 

The  shipment  of  fish  caught  at  Cape  Cod,  was  forbid- 
den unless  an  account  thereof  should  be  rendered  to  the 
water  bailiff  under  penalty  of  forfeiture.  In  June,  1673, 
the  excise  on  Cape  Cod  mackerel  was  lessened  to  citizens 
from  ]2d.lo6d.,  and  to  foreigners  from  2s.  to  ]s.  per 
barrel,  '  unless  any  shall  come  in  by  the  next  court,  and 
rent  the  privilege  of  the  cape  fishing.' 


116 


CHAPTER  III. 

PROCEEDIXGS  OF  THE  COMMISSIONERS  OF  THE  CONFEDERATED 

COLONIES,    AND    THE    ARTICLES    OF    CONFEDERATION. 

Plymohth  had  been  settled  seventeen  years,  Massachu- 
setts seven,  Connecticut  one  or  two,  and  New  Haven  was 
scarcely  settled,  when  these  colonies  began  seriously  to 
consider  the  benefit  of  a  union  for  the  common  defence. 
The  utility  of  such  a  union  was  not  doubted.  Articles 
had  been  drawn  up  as  early  as  l6oS,  but  were  not  adopted. 
In  1 639,  Governor  Haynes  and  Mr  Hooker  of  Connecticut, 
who  were  exceedingly  solicitous  to  effect  this  object,  visited 
Massachusetts  for  the  express  purpose  of  inducing  the 
General  Court  to  adopt  the  project,  and  remained  at 
Boston  several  weeks  to  urge  its  expediency  and  necessity. 
Connecticut  was  fully  sensible  of  the  important  benefits 
of  such  a  union  to  them  :  —  their  settlements  were  on  the 
river,  which  was  a  frontier  both  against  the  Dutch  and  the 
western  Indians,  and  were  then  feeble  and  defenceless  :  — 
A  wilderness  was  interposed  between  them  and  the  other 
English  settlements  :  —  the  people  of  Providence,  their 
nearest  English  neighbors,  possessed  not  that  congeniality 
of  sentiment  which  would  have  made  their  alliance  de- 
sirable ;  but  with  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth  their  feel- 
ings, sympathies,  and  principles,  were  common.  A 
union  so  desirable  on  every  account  to  them  they  were 
exceedingly  anxious  to  accomplish.      The  other  colonies 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY  II7 

were  favorable  to  the  project,  for  although  they  did  not 
fear  the  Dutch,  yet,  after  the  overthrow  of  the  Pequots, 
the  Narragansetts  being  the  strongest,  were  more  dread- 
ed than  all  the  other  Indian  tribes,  and  it  was  in  the 
power  of  the  Connecticut  settlements  feeble  as  they  were, 
in  a  time  of  war  to  make  a  strong  diversion.  The  Narra- 
gansetts and  a  considerable  part  of  the  Pokanokets,  were 
in  fact  surrounded  on  three  sides  by  these  three  colonies, 
and  the  local  situation  of  each  was  such  that  it  afforded 
many  facilities  for  mutual  aid  in  all  wars  in  which  they 
shnuhJ  be  jointly  engaged  with  the  Indians;  yet  it  was  so 
difficult  to  settle  the  terms  of  the  compact  on  a  basis  of 
ecjuality  and  reciprocity,  that  no  agreement  could  be 
effected  until  1643.  Commissioners  then  met  at  Boston, 
on  the  part  of  each  colony,  in  the  month  of  May.  The 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts  being  then  in  session, 
elected  their  commissioners  on  the  spot.  John  Winthrop, 
Thomas  Dudley,  and  Simon  Bradstreet,  were  chosen  by 
the  magistrates,  and  William  Hathorne,  Edward  Gibbons, 
and  William  Tyng  on  the  part  of  the  deputi'es  of  Massa- 
chusetts. Edward  Winslow  and  William  Collier  repre- 
sented Plymouth.  John  Haynes  and  Edward  Hopkins 
Connecticut.  Theophilus  Eaton  and  Thomas  Gregson 
New  Haven,  and  Saybrook,  an  independent  settlement  at 
the  mouth  of  the  river,  which  had  been  founded  by  Lord 
Say  and  Sele,  and  Lord  Brook,  and  of  which  John  Win- 
throp, Jr,  the  son  of  the  governor  of  Massachusetts,  was 
the  first  governor,  was  represented  by  George  Fenwick. 

The  Commissioners  had  several  meetings  before  they 
could  agree  on  the  terms  of  confederation,  and  the  project 
came  near  to  failing,  but  they  were  all  so  sensible  of  its 
general  benefits,  that  the  following  articles  were  signed 
at  last  by  all  the  commissioners  excepting  those  from  Ply- 
mouth, who  had  not  been  so  far  authorized  by  their  Gen- 


118  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

eral  Court ;  but  being  transmitted  to  the  General  Courts  of 
the  several  colonies,  they  were  ratified  and  confirmed  by 
all,  and  signed  by  the  Commissioners  of  Plymouth  at  the 
next  meeting. 

Articles  of  confederation  between  the  plantations  under 
the  government  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  New  Plymouth, 
Connecticut,  New  Haven  in  New  England,  with  the  plan- 
tations in  combination  with  them. 

'  Whereas,  all  came  into  these  parts  of  America  with 
one  and  the  same  end  and  aim,  namely,  to  advance  the 
kingdom  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  enjoy'  the  lib- 
erties of  the  gospel  in  purity  with  peace  ;  and  whereas 
in  our  settling,  (by  the  wise  providence  of  God,)  we  are 
further  dispersed  from  the  sea  coast  and  rivers,  than 
was  at  first  intended,  so  that  we  cannot  according  to  our 
desire,  with  convenience  communicate  in  one  government 
and  jurisdiction  ;  and  whereas  we  live  encompassed  with 
people  of  several  nations  and  strange  languages,  which 
hereafter  may  prove  injurious  to  us  and  our  posterity  ;  and 
forasmuch  as  tlie  natives  have  committed  sundry  insolen- 
ces and  outrages  upon  several  plantations  of  the  English, 
and  have  of  late  combined  themselves  against  us,  and 
seeing  by  reason  of  the  sad  distractions  in  England, 
(which  they  have  heard  of,  or  by  which  they  know,)  we 
are  hindered,  both  from  the  humble  way  of  seeking  ad- 
vice, and  reaping  those  comfortable  fruits  of  protection, 
which  at  other  times  we  might  well  expect ;  we  therefore 
do  conceive  it  our  bounden  duty,  without  delay,  to  enter 
into  a  present  consociation  amongst  ourselves,  for  mutual 
help  and  strength,  in  all  future  concernments  ;  that  as  a 
nation  and  relation,  so  in  other  respects  we  be,  and  con- 
tinue one,  according  to  the  tenor  and  true  meaning  of  the 
ensuing  articles. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  119 

*  1 .  Wherefore,  it  is  fully  agreed  and  concluded  between 
the  parties  and  jurisdictions  abovenamed,  and  they  jointly 
and  severally  do  by  these  presents  agree,  and  conclude 
that  they  all  l)e,  and  henceforth  be  called  by  the  name  of 
the  United  Colonies  of  New  England. 

'2.  The  said  United  Colonies,  for  themselves  and  their 
posterities,  dq  jointly  and  severally,  hereby  enter  into  a 
firm  and  perpetual  league  of  friendship  and  amity,  for 
offence  and  defence,  mutual  advice  and  succor,  upon  all 
just  occasions,  both  for  preserving  and  propagating  the 
trutlis  and  rd)erties  of  the  gospel,  and  for  their  own  mu- 
tual safety  and  welfare. 

'  3.  It  is  further  agreed,  that  the  plantations  which  at 
present  are,  or  hereafter  shall  be,  settled  within  the  limits 
of  the  Massachusetts,  shall  be  forever  under  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Massachusetts,  and  shall  have  peculiar  juris- 
diction amongst  themselves,  in  all  cases,  as  entire  body, 
and  that  Plymouth,  Connecticut,  and  New  Haven,  shall 
each  of  them,  in  all  respects,  have  peculiar  jurisdiction 
and  government,  within  their  limits;  and  in  reference  to 
the  plantations  which  are  already  settled,  or  shall  here- 
after be  erected  ;  and  shall  settle  within  any  of  their  limits 
respectively,  provided  that  no  other  jurisdiction  shall  be 
taken  in,  as  a  distinct  head  or  member  of  this  confedera- 
tion, nor  shall  any  other,  either  plantation  or  jurisdiction 
in  present  being,  and  not  already  in  combination,  or  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  any  of  their  confederates,  be  received 
by  any  of  them,  nor  shall  any  two  of  these  confederates, 
join  in  one  jurisdiction  without  consent  of  the  rest,  which 
consent  to  be  interpreted,  as  in  the  sixth  ensuing  article  is 
expressed. 

'4.  It  is  also  by  these  confederates  agreed,  that  the 
charge  of  all  just  wars,  whether  offensive  or  defensive, 
(upon  what  part  or  member  of  this  confederation  soever 


120  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

they  shall  fall,)  shall  both  in  men  and  provisions,  and 
all  other  disbursements,  be  borne  by  all  the  parts  of 
this  confederation,  in  different  proportions,  according 
to  their  different  abilities,  in  manner  following,  namely, 
that  the  commissioners  for  each  jurisdiction,  from  time 
to  time,  as  there  sliall  be  occasion,  bring  account  and 
number  of  all  the  males  in  each  plantation,^  or  any  way 
belonging  to  or  under  their  several  jurisdictions,  of 
what  quality  or  condition  soever  tiiey  be,  from  sixteen 
years  old  to  sixty,  being  inhabitants  there  ;  and  that 
according  to  the  different  numbers,  which  from  time  to 
time  shall  be  found  in  each  jurisdiction,  upon  a  true 
and  just  account,  the  service  of  men,  and  all  charges 
of  the  war  be  borne  by  the  poll.  Each  jurisdiction  or 
plantation  being  left  to  their  own  just  course  or  custom 
of  rating  themselves  and  people,  according  to  their  differ- 
ent estates,  with  due  respect  to  their  qualities  and  ex- 
emptions among  themselves  ;  though  the  confederates 
take  no  notice  of  any  such  privilege,  and  that  according 
to  the  different  charge  of  each  jurisdiction  and  [>lantalion, 
the  whole  advantage  of  the  war,  (if  it  pleased  God  to  bless 
their  endeavors.)  whether  it  be  in  land,  goods,  or  persons, 
shall  be  proportionally  divided  amongst  the  said  con- 
federates. 

'  5.  It  is  further  agreed,  that  if  any  of  these  jurisdictions, 
or  any  plantation  under,  or  in  combination  with  them,  be 
invaded  by  any  enemy  whatsoever,  upon  notice  and 
request  of  any  three  magistrates  of  that  jurisdiction 
so  invaded,  the  rest  of  the  confederates,  without  any 
further  notice  or  expostulation,  shall  forthwith  send  aid  to 
confederates  in  danger,  but  in  different  proportions: 
namely,  the  Massachusetts,  an  hundred  men,  sufficiently 
armed  and  provided  for  such  a  service  and  journey  ;  and 
each  of  the  rest  fortyfive  men,  so  armed  and  provided,  or 
any  less  number,  if  less  be  required,  according   to  this 


ftlEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  121 

proportion.  But  if  such  a  confederate  in  danger,  may  be 
supplied  by  the  next  confederate,  not  exceeding  the  num- 
ber hereby  agreed,  they  may  crave  help  thence,  and  seek 
no  further  for  the  present;  the  charge  to  be  borne,  as 
in  this  article  is  expressed  ;  but  at  their  return,  to  be 
victualled  and  supplied  with  powder  and  shot,  (if  there 
be  need)  for  their  journey,  by  that  jurisdiction  which 
employed  or  sent  for  them.  But  none  of  the  jurisdictions 
to  exceed  those  numbers,  till  by  a  meeting  of  the  com- 
missioners for  this  confederation,  a  greater  aid  appear 
necessary  ;  and  this  proportion  to  continue,  till  upon 
knowledge  of  the  numbers  of  each  jurisdiction,  which 
shall  be  brought  to  the  next  meeting,  s^me  other  propor- 
tion be  ordered  ;  but  in  any  such  case  of  sending  men  for 
present  aid,  (whether  before  or  after  such  order  or  altera- 
tions,) it  is  agreed  that  at  the  meeting  of  the  commission- 
ers for  this  confederation,  the  cause  of  such  war  or  invasion 
be  duly  considered.  And  if  it  appear  that  the  fault  lay 
in  the  party  invaded,  that  then  the  jurisdiction  or  planta- 
tion make  just  satisfaction,  both  to  the  invaders  whom 
they  have  injured,  and  bear  all  the  charge  of  the  war 
themselves,  without  requiring  any  allowance  from  the  rest 
of  the  confederates,  towards  the  same.  And  further,  that 
if  any  jurisdiction  see  danger  of  an  invasion  approaching, 
and  there  be  time  for  a  meeting,  that  in  such  case  three 
magistrates  of  that  jurisdiction  may  summon  a  meeting  at 
such  convenient  place,  as  themselves  think  meet,  to  con- 
sider and  provide  against  the  threatened  danger,  provided, 
when  they  are  met,  they  may  remove  to  what  place  they 
please  ;  only  when  any  of  these  four  confederates  have 
but  three  magistrates  in  their  jurisdiction,  a  request  or 
summons  from  any  two  of  them  shall  be  accounted  of 
equal  force  with   the  three  mentioned  in  both  the  clauses 

PART    II.  16 


122  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

of  this   article,  till   there  be  an   increase  of  magistrates 
there. 

'  6.  It  is  also  agreed  and  concluded,  that  for  the  man- 
aging of  all  affairs,  proper  to  and  concerning  the  whole 
confederation,  two  commissioners  shall  be  chosen  by  and 
out  of  each  of  those  jurisdictions,  namely,  two  for  the 
Massachusetts,  and  so  for  the  other  three,  (all  in  church 
fellowship  with  us,)  which  shall  bring  full  power  from 
their  several  general  courts  respectively,  to  hear  and 
examine,  weigh  and  determine,  all  affairs  of  war  or  peace, 
leagues,  aid,  charges,  numbers  of  men  of  war,  division  of 
spoils,  or  whatsoever  is  gotten  by  conquest,  receiving  of 
more  confederates  or  planiptions  into  combination  with 
any  of  these  confederates,  and  all  things  of  like  nature, 
which  are  the  proper  concomitants  and  consequents  of  such 
a  confederation,  for  amity,  ofience,  and  defence,  (not  in- 
termeddling with  the  government  of  any  of  the  jurisdic- 
tions, which  by  the  third  article  is  preserved  entirely  by 
them  ;)  but  if  these  eight  commissioners,  when  they  meet, 
shall  not  agree,  yet  it  is  concluded  that  any  six  of  the  eight 
agreeing  shall  have  power  to  determine  and  settle  the  busi- 
ness in  question.  But  if  six  do  not  agree,  that  then  such 
propositions  with  their  reasons,  (so  far  as  they  have  been 
debated,)  be  sent  and  referred  to  the  four  general  courts, 
namely,  the  Massachusetts,  Plymouth,  Connecticut,  and 
New  Haven,  and  if  at  all  the  said  general  courts  the 
business  so  referred  be  concluded,  then  to  be  prosecuted 
by  the  confederates  and  all  their  members.  It  is  further 
agreed  that  these  eight  commissioners  shall  meet  every 
year,  (besides  extraordinary  meetings,  according  to  the 
fifth  article,)  to  consider,  treat,  and  conclude  of  all  af- 
fairs, belonging  to  this  confederation  ;  which  meeting 
shall  ever  be  the  first  Tuesday  in  September,  and  that  the 
next  meeting  after  the  date  of  these  presents,  (which  shall 


Memoir  op  Plymouth  colony.  123 

be  accounted  the  second  meeting,)  shall  be  at  Boston  in 
the  Massachusetts  ;  the  third,  at  Hartford  ;  the  fourth,  at 
New  Haven  ;  the  fifth,  at  Plymoutli  ;  the  sixth  and  seventh, 
at  Boston  ;  and  then  at  Hartford,  New  Haven,  and  Ply- 
mouth, and  so  in  course  successively  ;  if,  in  the  meantime, 
some  middle  place  be  not  found  out,  and  agreed  upon, 
which  may  be  ccmmodi  us  for  all  the  jurisdiction. 

'  7.  It  is  further  agreed,  that  at  each  meeting  of  these 
eight  commissioners,  (whether  ordinary  or  extraordinary,) 
they  all,  or  any  six  of  them,  agreeing  as  before,  may  choose 
their  president,  out  of  themselves,  whose  office  and  work 
shall  be,  to  take  care  and  direct  for  order,  and  a  comely 
carrying  on  of  all  proceedings  in  their  present  meeting. 
But  he  shall  be  invested  with  no  such  power  or  respect, 
as  by  which  he  shall  hinder  the  propoimding  or  progress 
of  any  business,  or  any  way  cast  the  scales  otherwise, 
than  in  the  preceding  article,  is  agreed. 

'  8.  It  is  also  agreed,  that  the  commissioners  for  this  con- 
federation hereafter,  at  their  meetings,  (whether  ordinary 
or  extraordinary,)  as  they  may  have  commission  or  oppor- 
tunity, do  endeavor  to  frame  and  establish  agreements  and 
orders  in  general  cases  of  a  civil  nature,  wherein  all  the 
plantations  are  interested  for  preserving  peace  among 
themselves,  and  preventing  (as  much  as  may  be,)  all  occa- 
sions of  war  or  differences  with  others;  as  about  free  and 
speedy  passage  of  justice  in  each  jurisdiction,  to  all  the 
confederates  equally  as  to  their  own  ;  receiving  those  that 
remove  from  one  plantation  to  another  without  due  cer- 
tificates ;  how  all  the  jurisdictions  may  carry  it  towards 
the  Indians,  that  they  neither  grow  insolent,  nor  be  injured 
without  due  satisfaction,  lest  war  break  in  upon  the  con- 
federates through  miscarriages.  It  is  also  agreed,  that  if 
any  servant  run  away  from  his  master,  into  any  of  the 
confederate  jurisdictions,  that  in  such  case,  (upon  certifi- 


124  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

cate  from  one  magistrate  in  the  jurisdiction  out  of  which 
the  said  servant  fled,  or  upon  other  diie  proof,)  the  said 
servant  shall  be  either  delivered  to  his  master,  or  any 
other  that  pursues,  and  brings  such  certificate  and  proof. 

And  that  upon  the  escape  of  any  prisoner,  or  fugitive, 
for  any  criminal  cause,  whether  breaking  prison  or  get- 
ling  from  the  officer,  or  otherwise  escaping ;  upon  the 
certificate  of  tvvo  magistrates  of  the  jurisdiction  out  of 
which  the  escape  is  made,  that  he  was  a  prisoner  or  such 
an  offender  at  the  time  of  the  escape,  the  magistrate,  or 
some  of  them  of  that  jurisdiction,  where  for  the  present 
the  said  prisoner  or  fugitive  abideth,  shall  forthwith  grant 
such  a  warrant  as  the  case  will  bear,  for  the  apprehending 
of  any  such  person,  and  the  delivery  of  him  into  the  hand 
of  the  officer  or  other  person  who  pursueth  him.  And  if 
there  be  help  required,  for  the  safe  returning  of  any  such 
offender,  then  it  shall  be  granted  unto  him  that  craves  the 
same,  he  paying  the  charges  thereof. 

'  9.  And  for  that  the  justest  wars  may  be  of  dangerous 
consequence,  (especially  to  the  smaller  plantations  in 
these  United  Colonies,)  it  is  agreed,  that  neither  the  Mas- 
sachusetts, Plymouth,  Connecticut,  nor  New  Haven,  nor 
any  of  the  members  of  any  of  them,  shall  at  any  time 
hereafter  begin,  undertake,  or  engage  themselves,  or  this 
confederation,  or  any  part  thereof,  in  any  war  whatsoever, 
(sudden  exigences,  with  the  necessary  consequences 
thereof  excepted,  which  are  also  to  be  moderated  as  much 
as  the  case  will  permit,)  without  the  consent  and  agree- 
ment of  the  forenamed  eight  commissioners,  or  at  least 
six  of  them,  as  in  the  sixth  article  is  provided.  And  that 
no  charge  be  required  of  any  of  the  confederates,  in  case 
of  a  defensive  war,  till  the  said  commissioners  have  met, 
and  approved  the  justice  of  the  war,  and  have  agreed 
upon  the  sums  of  money  to  be  levied ;  which  sum  is  then 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  125 

to  be  paid  by  the  several  confederates,  in  proportion  ac- 
cording to  the  fourth  article. 

'  10.  That  in  extraordinary  occasions,  when  meetings  are 
summoned  by  three  magistrates  of  any  jurisdiction,  or 
two,  as  in  the  fifth  article,  if  any  of  the  commissioners 
come  not,  (due  warning  being  given  or  sent,)  it  is  agreed 
that  four  of  the  commissioners  shall  have  power  to  direct 
a  war  which  cannot  be  delayed,  and  to  send  for  due  pro- 
portions of  men,  out  of  each  jurisdiction,  as  well  as  six 
might  have  done,  if  all  had  met;  but  not  less  than  six 
shall  determine  the  justice  of  war,  or  allow  the  demands 
or  bill  of  charges,  or  cause  any  levies  to  be  made  for  the 
same. 

'11.  It  is  further  agreed,  that  if  any  of  the  confederates 
shall  hereafter  break  any  of  these  present  articles,  or  be 
any  other  way  injurious  to  any  of  the  other  jurisdictions, 
such  breach  of  agreement  or  injury  shall  be  duly  consid- 
ered and  ordered  by  the  commissioners  of  the  other  juris- 
dictions, that  both  peace  and  this  present  confederation  , 
may  be  entirely  preserved  without  violation. 

'  12.  Lastly,  this  perpetual  confederation,  and  the  several 
articles  and  agreements  thereof  bemg  read  and  seriously 
considered,  both  by  the  General  Court  for  the  Massachu- 
setts, and  the  Commissioners  for  the  other  three,  were 
subscribed  presently  by  the  commissioners,  (all  save  those 
of  Plymouth,  who,  for  want  of  sufficient  commission  from 
their  General  Court,  deferred  their  subscription  till  the 
next  meeting,  and  then  they  subscribed  also,)  and  were  to 
be  allowed  by  the  General  Courts  of  the  severe^l  jurisdic- 
tions, which  accordingly  was  done,  and  certified  at  the 
next  meeting,  held  at  Boston,  September  7,  1C43. 

«  Boston,  May  29,  1643.' 


126  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

The  preamble  recites  the  inducements  to  union,  which 
were  principally  the  clangers  of  Indian  wars,  as  from  the 
distractions  in  England  the  prospect  of  assistance  from 
home  was  dubious,  and  therefore  it  became  necessary  for 
the  colonies  to  unite  their  strength. 

The  United  Colonies  of  New  England  was  the  style 
assumed.  A  perpetual  league  was  established  of  friend- 
ship and  amity  for  offence  and  defence,  mutual  advice, 
and  succor  upon  all  just  occasions,  '  both  for  preserving 
and  propagating  the  truths  and  liberties  of  the  gospel,  and 
for  their  own  mutual  safety  and  welfare.' 

No  plantation  to  be  received  into  the  jurisdiction  of 
either  colony  unless  within  their  chartered  limits,  and  no 
colonies  to  unite  in  one  jurisdiction  unless  by  consent  of 
the  others. 

The  charges  of  wars  to  be  borne,  and  the  spoil  whether 
'  in  land  or  goods,'  to  be  divided  in  proportion.  The 
mode  of  requiring  aid  from  each,  and  of  ascertaining  the 
proportions  of  the  burthens,  were  prescribed. 

In  case  of  the  invasion  of  either  colony,  the  other  par- 
ties of  the  confederacy  were  to  raise  a  military  force  in  equal 
proportions  excepting  Massachusetts,  who  was  to  raise  in 
.the  proportion  of  one  hundred,  to  fortyfive  from  each  of 
the  others.  The  justice  of  war  was  to  be  decided  by  the 
commissioners,  and  in  case  of  injury  to  others,  satisfaction 
was  to  be  awarded  to  the  injured  party. 

The  last  article  Vvas  intended  to  prevent  either  colony 
from  practising  wanton  depredations  on  the  Indians,  and 
from  dding  them  wrong. 

Each  jurisdiction  was  to  be  represented  by  two  com- 
missioners, ('all  in  church  fellowship.')  Six  of  the  eight 
to  decide  on  all  questions  of  peace  or  war,  (with  some 
exceptions.) 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  127 

In  case  six  of  the  eight  did  not  agree,  the  propositions 
were  to  be  referred  to  the  General  Courts  of  all  the  Colo- 
nies who  were  all  to  agree. 

The  place  of  meeting  after  the  first  seven  years  to  be 
at  Hartford,  New  Haven,  and  Plymouth  alternately,  unless 
a  permanent  'middle  spot,'  should  be  adopted. 

The  president  was  to  be  chosen  by  six  votes  out  of  eight. 
He  had  no  other  powers  than  such  as  are  ordinarily  at- 
tached to  the  chair. 

The  commissioners  were  authorized  '  to  frame  and  es- 
tablish agreements  and  orders  in  general  cases  of  a  civil 
nature,'  to  prevent  differences,  to  cause  such  to  be  received 
as  should  remove  from  one  jurisdiction  to  another  without 
certificates,  to  regulate  the  intercourse  with  the  Indians, 
to  provide  for  the  restoration  of  runaway  servants  and 
criminals  escaping  from  one  jurisdiction  to  another. 

No  war,  offensive  or  defensive,  was  to  be  made  without 
the  cgnsent  of  six  of  the  eight  commissioners. 

Any  violation  of  the  articles  of  confederation  was  to 
be  '  duly  considered  and  ordered'  by  the  commissioners, 
except  those  of  the  offending  colony. 

Tli§  articles  were  not  precise  in  their  terms,  and  were 
liable  to  a  latitudinarian  construction,  but  as  there  were 
no  political  dissensions  at  the  period  of  their  adoption 
nor  for  many  years  subsequent,  dissensions  being  then 
confined  altogether  to  religion,  they  were  construed  on 
sound  principles,  and  made  efficient  by  the  force  of  opin- 
ion for  a  period  of  thirty  years,  and  were  not  altered  until 
1672. 

The  first  meeting  of  the  Commissioners  after  the  arti- 
cles of  confederation  had  been  ratified,  was  at  Boston, 
Sept.  7,  1G43.  The  Commissioners  were  —  from  Ply- 
mouth, Edward  Winslow,  William  Collier  ;  from  Massa- 
chusetts,   John  Winthrop,   Thomas    Dudley ;  from   Con- 


128  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

necticut,  George  Fenwick,  Edward   Hopkins;  from  New 
Haven,  Theophilus  Eaton,  Thomas  Gregson. 

John  Winlhrop  of  iVJassachusetts  was  elected  President. 
On  motion  of  the  Commissioners  of  New  Haven,  it  was 
ordered  that   the    town   of  Milford   may  be   received    into 
combination  and  as  a  member  of  the  jurisdiction    of  New 
Haven,  if  New  Haven    and    Milford  agree  upon  the  terms 
'  and  conditions  among  themselves.     The   like  liberty  was 

also  granted  in  regard  of  tlie  town  of  Southampton. 

The  Winchester  was  establised  as  the  commo.i  measure 
of  the  confederated  colonies,  eight  gallons  to  the  bushel. 
The  several  General  Courts  were  advised  to  attend  par- 
ticularly to  the  arms  and  equipments  of  the  citizens  of 
their  colonies,  their  ammunition,  stores,  &c,  and  to  report 
annually  to  the  Commissioners,  and  six  annual  trainings, 
(at  least,)  in  the  several  colonies,  were  ordered. 

The  proportion  of  men  to  be  raised  in  the  different 
colonies  in  case  of  war  or  imminent  danger,  was  fixed  by 
the  Commissioners  as  follows. 

Massachusetts,  -  -  150 

Plymouth,  -  -  -       30 

Connecticut,  -  -  30 

New  Haven,        -  -  -       25 

Total,         -         -         235 

This  apportionment  was  to  remain  until  the  second 
annual  meeting  of  the  Commissioners. 

Samuel  Gorton  having  again  disturbed  the  tranquillity 
of  the  good  people  of  Massachusetts  by  various  writings 
and  controversies,  which  they  deemed  not  only  blasphe- 
mous but  subversive  of  civil  order,  complaint  was  made 
to  the  Commissioners.  Gorton  and  his  company  had 
been  summoned  to  appear  before   the   General  Court  of 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  129 

Massachusetts,  and  a  safe  conduct  offered.  If  they  should 
stubbornly  refuse  to  appear,  the  commissioners  'thought 
fit  that  the  mai^istrates  in  the  Massachusetts  proceed 
against  them  according  to  what  they  shall  find  just:  and 
the  rest  of  the  jurisdictions  will  approve  and  concur  in 
what  shall  be  so  warrantably  done,  as  if  their  commission- 
ers had  been  present  at  the  conclusions,  provided  that  this 
conclusion  do  not  prejudice  the  government  of  Plymouth 
in  any  right  they  can  justly  claim  unto  any  tract  or  tracts 
of  land  besides  that  possessed  by  the  English  and  Indians 
who  have  submitted  themselves  to  the  government  of  Mas- 
sachusetts.' 

Massachusetts,  it  would  seem,  still  continued  to  claim 
Gorton's  purchase  and  jurisdiction  also,  on  the  ground  of 
ces-.ion  from  the  Indians.  Plymouth  also  claimed  juris- 
diction ;  and  although  both  colonies  were  willing  to  jc»in 
in  the  persecution  of  this  bold,  insolent,  obnoxious  fanatic, 
yet  they  could  not  as  yet  agree  which  should  take  the 
spoil. 

The  Commissioners  of  New  Haven  complained  of  sun- 
dry injuries  and  outrai^es  which  the  people  of  that  colony 
had  received  from  the  Dutch  and  Swedes  in  Delaware 
bay,  and  exliibiled  their  proofs.  Governor  Winthrop,  the 
president,  was  instructed  to  require  explanation  and  satis- 
faction of  the  Swedish  governor. 

The  Dutch  governor  at  Manhattan  had  written  to  the 
governor  and  General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  '  complain- 
ing against  Hartford.'  He  was  referred  to  the  Commis- 
sioners. At  this  meeting  the  subject  was  taken  into  con- 
sideration, and  Governtjr  Winthrop  was  instructed  to  an- 
swer. '  It  was  thought  fit,  that  in  that  answer  the  wrongs 
done  both  to  Hartford  and  New  Haven  be  expressed, 
requiring  answer  to  the  particulars  that  as   we   will  not 

PART  II.  17 


130  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

wrong  others,  so   we  may  not  desert  our  confederates  in 
any  just  cause.' 

One  of  the  most  important  subjects  committed  to  the 
Commissioners  was  the  regulation  of  their  common  rela- 
tions with  the  Indians.  With  some  of  the  sachems,  spe- 
cial alliances  had  been  formed,  and  it  became  their  duty 
to  interfere  between  the  dirt'erent  tribes  oftentimes,  so  that 
peace  should  be  maintained,  for  a  war  between  the  larger 
tribes  could  hardly  fail  to  involve  the  English  eventually. 
The  christian  or  piaying  Indians  they  were  bound  to  pro- 
tect. These  were  considered  in  the  light  of  subjects,  and 
so  well  was  the  relation  understood,  that  even  the  Mo- 
hawks, ihe  unrelenting  enemies  of  all  the  tribes  east  «-)f 
Connecticut  river,  in  their  incursions  generally  spared  such 
Indians  through  fear  or  respect  of  the  English. 

The  history  of  the  disputes,  negotiations,  and  treaties, 
and  the  measures  pursued  by  the  Commissioners  when 
interfering  to  preserve  the  peace  of  the  colonies,  and 
peace  also  between  the  different  tribes  of  Indians  being 
confined,  (until  the  general  war)  to  the  Narragansetts, 
Pequots,  and  Moheagans,  belongs  properly  to  Connecticut  j 
and  the  history  of  the  disputes,  quarrels,  and  negotia- 
tions, with  the  Dutch  and  Swedes,  to  Connecticut  and 
JNew  Haven  ;  and  the  history  of  the  correspondence  and 
intercourse  of  the  Commissioners  with  the  English  Society 
for  propagating  the  gospel  in  New  England,  to  Massa- 
chusetts. 

The  legislation  of  the  Commissioners  on  general  sub- 
jects, and  particularly  in  all  things  specially  relating  to 
Plymouth,  may  with  propriety  be  inserted  in  the  history  of 
that  colony. 

Transactions  of  a  miscellaneous  character  will  be  no- 
ticed in  the  order  of  the  time  in  which  they  occurred. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  131 

The  second  meeting  of  the  Commissioners  was  at  Hart- 
ford, September  5th,  1644;  present  from  Massachusetts, 
Simon  Bradstreet,  William  Hawthorne  ;  Plymouth,  Ed- 
ward Winslow,  John  Brown  ;  Connecticut,  Mr  Hopkins, 
I\Ir  Fenvvick  ;  New  Haven,  Mr  Eaton,  Mr  Gregson.  Ed- 
ward Hopkins  was  chosen  president. 

The  Commissioners  of  Massachusetts  claimed  prece- 
dence of  right,  as  being  first  named  in  the  articles  of 
confederation :  this  claim  the  Commissioners  rejected, 
'yet  out  of  their  respects  to  the  government  of  Massa- 
chusetts, they  did  willingly  grant  that  their  Commissioners 
should  first  subscribe  after  the  president  in  this  and  all 
future  meetings.  And  the  Commissioners  for  the  other 
colonies  in  such  order  as  they  are  named  in  the  articles, 
namely,  Plymouth,  Connecticut,  and  New  Haven.' 

Massachusetts  also  claimed  a  part  of  the  lands  conquered 
from  the  Pequots,  as  that  colony  had  been  associated  in 
the  war. 

*  Mr  Fenwick  for  himself  and  some  noble  personages 
by  patent  interested  in  the  lands  in  question,  desired  that 
nothing  might  be  concluded  against  their  right  and  title 
in  their  absence,  and  professeth  that  Pecoat  harbor,  and 
the  lands  adjoining  were  of  great  concernment  to  those 
interested  in  Connecticut  river,  and  that  they  had  special 
aim  and  respect  to  it  when  first  they  consulted  about 
planting  in  these  parts.' 

This  subject  was  interesting  to  the  proprietors  of  Say- 
brook,  and  the  Commissioners  decided  that  they  should 
have  time  to  be  heard. 

The  Commissioners  took  into  consideration  the  subject 
of  supporting  the  ministers,  and  recommended  to  ea  -h 
General  Court,  '  that  those  that  are  taught  in  the  word  in 
the  several  plantations  be  called  together,  that  every  man 
voluntarily  set  down  what  he  is  willing   to  allow  to  that 


132  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

end  and  use ;  and  if  any  man  refuse  to  pay  mete  propor- 
tion, that  llien  he  be  rated  by  authority  in  some  just  and 
equal  way,  and  if  after  this,  any  man  withhold  or  delay 
due  payment,  the  civil  power  to  be  exercised  as  in  other 
just  debts.' 

A  communication  from  Mr  Shepard,  pastor  of  the  church 
in  Cambridge,  was  read,  and  approved,  and  recommended 
to  the  several  general  courts  '  as  a  matter  worthy  of  due 
consideration  and  entertainment  for  advance  of  learning 
and  which  we  hope  (say  the  Commissioners)  will  be  cheer- 
fully embraced.'     The  communication  was  in  these  words. 

'  To  the  honored  Commissioners, 

'  Those  whom  God  hath  called  to  attend  the  welfare  of 
religious  commonweals,  have  been  prompt  to  extend  their 
care  for  the  good  of  public  schools,  by  means  of  which 
the  commonwealth  may  be  furnished  with  knowing  and 
understanding  men  in  all  callings  :  the  churches  with  an 
able  ministry  ;  in  all  places,  and  without  which  it  is  easy 
to  see  how  both  these  estates  may  decline  and  degenerate 
into  gross  ignorance,  and  consequently  into  great  and 
universal  profaneness.  May  it  please  you  therefore  among 
other  things  of  common  concernment,  and  public  benefit, 
to  take  into  your  consideration  some  way  of  comfortable 
maintenance  for  that  school  of  the  prophets  that  now  is  ; 
for  although  hitherto  God  hath  carried  on  that  work  by  a 
special  hand,  and  that  not  without  some  evident  fruit  and 
success,  yet  it  is  found  by  too  sad  experience,  that  for 
want  of  some  external  supplies  many  are  discouraged 
from  sending  their  children,  (though  pregnant  and  fit  to 
take  the  best  impression,)  thereunto,  others  that  are  sent, 
their  parents  enforced  to  take  them  away  too  soon,  or  to 
their  own  houses  too  oft,  as  not  able  to  minister  any  com- 
fortable and  seasonable  maintenance  to  them  therein,  and 
those  who  are  continued  not  without  much  pressure  gene- 
rally to  the  feeble  abilities  of  their  parents  or  other  pri- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  133 

vate  friends  who  bear  the  burthen  therein  alone;  if  there- 
fore, it  were  commended  by  you  at  least  to  the  freedom 
of  every  family,  (which  is  able  and  willing  to  give,) 
throughout  the  plantations  to  give  yearly  but  the  fourth 
part  of  a  bushel  of  corn,  or  something  equivalent  there- 
unto :  and  for  this  end  if  every  minister  were  desired  to 
stir  up  the  hearts  of  the  people  once  in  the  fittest  season 
in  the  year  to  be  freely  enlarged  therein,  and  one  or  two 
faithful  and  fit  men  appointed  in  each  town  to  receive  and 
seasonably  to  send  in  what  shall  be  thus  given  by  them. 
li  is  conceived,  as  no  man  would  feel  any  grievance  here- 
by, so  it  would  be  a  blessed  means  of  comfortable  pro- 
vision for  the  diet  of  divers  such  students  as  may  stand  in 
need  of  some  support,  and  be  thought  mete  and  worthy 
to  be  continued  a  fit  season  therein.  And  because  it  may 
seem  an  unmete  thing  for  this  one  to  suck  and  draw  away 
all  that  nourishment  which  the  lyke  schools  may  need  in 
after  times  in  other  colonies,  your  wisdoms  therefore  may 
set  down  what  limitations  you  please,  or  choose  any  other 
way  you  shall  think  more  mete  for  this  desired  supply, 
your  religious  care  hereof  as  it  cannot  but  be  pleasing  to 
him  whose  you  are,  and  whom  now  you  serve,  so  the  fruit 
hereof  may  hereafter  abundantly  testify  that  your  labor 
herein  hath  not  been  in  vain.' 

The  government  of  Massachusetts  were  permitted  to 
receive  Martin's*  Vineyard  into  their  jurisdiction  ;  and 
the  jurisdiction  of  Connecticut  South  Hampton,  on  Long 
Island. 

Woranoake  was  determined  to  be  within  the  jurisdiction 
of  Massachusetts,  but  tlie  purchasers,  Mr  Hopkins  and  Mr 

*  Martha's  Vineyard,  then  called  Martin's,  from  Martin  Pring,  one  of  the 
early  navig=jtors  to  America,  as  is  supposed.  The  name  of  Martha's  Vineyard 
was  given  by  Capt.  Gosnold  to  No-mau's-land,  and  transferred  afterwaids  to 
the  larger  island.  - 


134  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Whiting,  who  had  built  a  trading  house,  were  confirmed 
in  their  title  to  one  thousand  acres  of  land. 

All  voluntary  expeditions  against  the  Dutch,  French, 
and  Swedes,  were  forbidden. 

'  Some  of  the  inhabitants  of  Rhode  Island  having  inti- 
mated a  willingness  to  be  received  into  and  under  the 
government  of  one  of  the  colonies,  the  Commissioners 
considering  by  an  utter  refusal  they  may  by  the  discords 
and  divisions  among  themselves  be  exposed  to  some  great 
inconveniences,  and  hoping  many  of  them  may  be  reduced 
to  a  better  frame  of  government,  thought  fit,  if  the  major 
part  and  such  as  have  most  interest  in  the  island,  will  ab- 
solutely and  without  reservation  submit,  either  the  Massa- 
chusetts or  Plymouth  may  receive  them.' 

All  general  charges  were  to  be  proportioned  according 
to  the  list  of  males  between  sixteen  and  sixty  in  each 
colony. 

It  was  recommended  to  the  several  general  courts  that 
every  verdict  or  sentence  rendered  in  one  colony,  should 
be  made  by  law  presumptive  evidence  in  any  other  colony 
of  the  confederacy. 

It  was  ordered  that  the  repairs  of  the  road  from 
Massachusetts  to  Connecticut  should  be  made  at  the  gen- 
eral expense. 

The  Commissioners  also  took  measures  to  prevent  the 
people  of  Massachusetts  from  engaging  in  the  controver- 
sies between  La  Tour  and  D'Aulney  at  St  Johns.  The 
Commissioners  of  Plymouth  having  laid  before  them  the 
complaints  of  the  people  of  that  colony  for  the  injuries 
which  they  had  received  at  their  establishment  at  Matthe- 
biquatus  in  Penobscot,  the  aflfair  was  postponed  to  await 
the  D'Aulneys'  decision  as  to  the  explanatory  letter  which 
had  been  sent  to  him  by  the  General  Court  of  Massachu- 
setts. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  135 

Tlie  Governor  of  Massachusetts  having  written  to  the 
Commissioners  proposing  for  their  consideration  '  how  the 
spreading  course  of  error  might  be  stayed,  and  the  truths 
wherein  the  churches  of  New  England  walk,  set  upon 
their  own  firm  and  clear  foundations,  the  Commissioners 
propounded  to,  and  received  from  the  elders  now  present 
at  Hartford,  as  followeth.' 

'  QiTF.sT.  Whether  the  elders  may  not  be  intreated 
seriously  to  consider  of  some  confession  of  doctrine  and 
discipline,  with  solid  ground  "to  be  approved  by  the 
churches,  and  published  by  consent,  (till  further  light)  for 
the  confirming  the  weak  among  ourselves,  and  stopping 
the  moutlts  of  adversaries  abroad.' 

'  Ans.  We  who  are  here  present,  in  all  thankfulness 
acknowledge  your  christian  and  religious  care,  to  further 
the  good  of  our  churches  and  posterity,  and  do  readily 
entertain  the  motion,  and  shall  use  our  best  diligence  and 
endeavor  to  acquaint  the  rest  of  our  brethren  with  it,  and 
shall  study  to  answer  your  desires  and  expectations  as  soon 
as  God  shall  give  fit  season.' 

A  difference  arising  between  Massachusetts  and  Ply- 
mouth respecting  the  jurisdiction  of  a  '  plantation  called 
Seacunk,'  it  was  referred  to  the  Commissioners,  and  the 
Plymouth  patent  was  produced.  It  appeared  that  a  place 
called  Poccanokick,  alias  Sewamsett,  was  granted  to 
Plymouth.  The  Commissioners  inquired  of  the  deputies 
of  the  Narragansett  Indians  who  were  then  present,  as  to 
the  extent  of  the  country  to  which  these  names  were  ap- 
plied, and  determined  that  Seacunk  was  within  the  limits 
of  Plymouth. 

An  extraQrdinary  meeting  of  the  Commissioners  was 
holden  at  Boston,  on  the  28th  of  June,  1645.  Present, 
John  Winthrop  and  Herbert  Pelham  from  Massachusetts; 
Thomas  Prince  and  Mr  Brown  from  Plymouth  ;  Mr  Hop- 


136  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

kins  and  Mr  Fenwick  from  Connecticut ;  Mr  Eaton  and 
Stephen  Goodyere  from  New  Haven.  John  Winthrop  was 
chosen  president. 

The  difficulties  between  La  Tour  and  D'Aulney  were 
again  considered,  and  an  agreement  or  treaty  for  peace 
between  the  governor  of  Massachusetts  and  M.  Marie  the 
agent  {or  D'Aulney,  was  produced,  which  was  concluded, 
August,  1G44. 

This  agreement  was  confirmed  by  the  Commissioners, 
'being  desirous  that  a  firm  and  general  peace  be  main- 
tained between  the  English  and  all  their  neighbors,  that 
every  one  might  pursue  the  common  intention  of  subduing 
this  wilderness  for  the  use  of  man,  in  that  way  for  which 
the  earth  was  first  given  to  the  sons  of  Adam,  and  for 
bringing  those  barbarous  people  to  civility,  and  so  by 
divine  assistance  to  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God  and 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,'  &.c. 

The  Commissioners  met  at  New  Haven,  September  7th, 
1646.  John  Endicott  from  Massachusetts  ;  Timothy  Hath- 
erly  from  Plymouth  ;  John  Haynes  from  Connecticut. 
The  other  Commissioners  were  reelected.  Theophilus 
Eaton  of  New  Haven,  was  chosen  president. 

John  Winthrop,  Jr,  having  com(nen(;ed  a  plantation  at 
Pequot.  (afterwards  New  London,)  a  question  arose  as  to 
the  jurisdiction.  Massachusetts  claimed  the  plantation 
by  right  of  conquest.  Connecticut  by  patent,  purchase, 
and  conquest. 

The  Commissioners  agreed  that  the  jurisdiction  was  in 
Connecticut. 

The  general  account  of  the  expenses  heretofore  in- 
curred in  the  general  cause  of  the  colonies  was  adjusted. 
'And  upon  consideration  of  soldier's  diet,  and  other  ex- 
penses in  wine,  hot  waters,  powder  and  shot,  wherein 
either  of  the  colonies  may  be  provident  or  remiss  to  their 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  137 

own  or  neighbor's  damage,  the  expense  of  each  private 
soldier  was  restricted  to  6s.  a  week,  corporal  Ss.,  serjeant 
10^.,  ensign  15s.,  lieutenant  20s.,  captain  30s.' 

The  following  declaration  and  recommendation  to  the 
several  general  courts,  was  adopted  by  the  commissioners. 

'  Upon  serious  consideration  of  the  spreading  nature  of 
error,  the  dangerous  growth  and  effects  thereof  in  other 
places,  and  particularly  how  the  purity  and  power  both  of 
religion  and  civil  order  is  already  much  complayned,  if 
not  wholly  lost  in  a  part  of  New  England,  by  a  licentious 
liberty  granted  and  settled,  whereby  many  casting  off  the 
rule  of  the  word,  profess  and  practise  what  is  good  in  their 
own  eyes  ;  and  upon  information  of  what  petitions  have 
been  lately  put  up  in  some  of  the  colonies,  against  the 
good  and  strait  ways  of  Christ,  both  in  the  churches  and 
in  the  commonwealth,  the  Commissioners  remembering 
that  those  colonies  for  themselves  and  their  posterity  did 
enter  into  this  firm  and  perpetual  league,  as  for  other  re- 
spects, so  for  mutual  advice  that  the  truth  and  liberties  of 
the  gospel  might  be  preserved,  propagated  :  thought  it 
their  duty  seriously  to  commend  it  to  the  care  and  con- 
sideration of  each  General  Court  within  these  United 
Colonies,  that  as  they  have  laid  their  foundations  and 
measured  the  temple  of  God,  the  worship  and  worshippers, 
by  that  straight  reed  God  hath  put  into  their  hands,  so 
they  would  walk  on  and  build  up  (all  discouragements 
and  difficulties  notwithstanding,)  with  an  undaunted  heart 
and  unwearied  hand,  according  to  the  same  rules  and  pat- 
terns. That  a  due  watch  be  kept  and  continued  at  the 
doors  of  God's  house,  that  none  be  admitted  as  members 
of  the  body  of  Christ,  but  such  as  hold  forth  effectual 
calling,  and  thereby  union  with  Christ  the  head,  and  thos^ 
whom  Christ  hath  received,  and  enter  by  an  express  cove- 
nant to  attend  and  observe  the  laws  and  duties  of  that 

PART    II.  18 


138  MEMOIR  07  FLYMOUTH  CCLONY. 

spiritual  corporation,  that  baptism  the  seal  of  the  covenant 
be  administered  only  to  such  members  and  their  immediate 
seed,  that  Anabaptism,  Familism,  Antinomianism,  gene- 
rally all  errors  of  like  nature  which  oppose,  undermine  and 
slight  either  the  scriptures,  the  Sabbath  or  other  ordi- 
nances of  God,  and  bring  in  and  cry  up  unwarrantable 
revelations,  inventions  of  men,  or  any  carnal  liberty^  under 
a  deceitful  color  of  liberty  of  conscience,  may  be  season- 
ably and  duly  suppressed,  though  they  wish  as  much  for- 
bearance and  respect  may  be  had  of  tender  consciences 
seeking  light,  as  may  stand  with  the  purity  of  religion 
and  peace  of  the  churches.  (The  Commissioners  of  Ply- 
mouth desire  further  consideration  concerning  this  advice 
given  to  the  General  Courts.')  Plymouth,  it  seems,  hesi- 
tated to  join  the  denunciation  of  those  of  a  different  faith. 
The  Commissioners  conclude.  '  And  lastly,  that  some 
serious  provision  be  speedily  made  against  oppression, 
whether  in  commodities  or  wages,  against  excess  and  disor- 
der in  apparel,  drink  and  all  other  loose  and  sinful  mis- 
carriages not  fit  to  be  named  amongst  Christians,  by  which 
the  name  of  our  holy  God  is  much  dishonored,  and  the 
churches  of  Christ  in  these  parts  much  reproached,  as  if 
they  were  strict  in  their  firms  only,  or  had  respect  only 
to  one  of  the  tables  of  God's  law,  their  fruits  in  reference 
to  the  other,  being  nothing  better  than  the  wild  vines  or 
brambles  in  the  wilderness.  If  thus  we  be  for  God,  he 
certainly  will  be  with  us,  and  though  the  God  of  the 
world,  (as  he  is  styled,)  be  worshipped,  and  by  usurpation 
set  upon  his  throne  in  the  main  and  greatest  part  of 
America,  yet  this  small  part  and  portion  may  be  vindicated 
as  by  the  right  hand  of  Jehovah,  and  justly  called  Eman- 
uel's land.' 

This  startling  declaration  of  the  Commissioners  of  the 
existence  of  vices  besides  heresies  in  religion,  in  the  infant 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  139 

and  religious  colonies  of  New  England,  must  be  taken 
U'itli  some  qualifications.  Perhaps  what  seemed  excesses 
to  these  austere  men,  were  nothing  more  than  venial  in- 
dulgences, which  liberal  minds  would  have  viewed  rather 
as  tempoia.y  and  accidental  deviaions  lh;.n  fixed  and 
rooted  h.-bits  of  ev.l. 

In  one  respect  the  puritan  fathers  of  New  England 
have  won  and  have  deserved  the  gratitude  of  their  pos- 
terity. According  to  their  means  tliey  were  the  munifi- 
cent patron-;  of  learning  ;  they  watched  with  paternal 
solicitude  over  the  progress  of  the  infant  establishment 
at  Cambridge,  but  they  looked  to  the  moral  and  literary 
improvement  of  the  cotifederated  colonies  from  the  efforts 
and  examples  of  well  educated  men,  rather  than  tfie  par- 
tic;iiar  advantage  of  the  student,  or  the  general  diflusion 
of  science,  as  this  declaration  of  the  Commissioners  dis- 
covers. '  Whereas  the  colonies  at  present  afford  some 
help  towards  the  maintenance  of  some  poor  scholars  in 
the  college  at  Cambri('g3  in*  the  Massachusetts.  It  was 
propounded  and  thought  fit  that  some  course  be  taken 
with  the  parents,  and  with  such  scholars  themselves,  (as 
the  case  may  require,)  that  when  they  are  furnished  with 
learning,  in  some  competent  measure,  they  remove  not 
into  other  countries,  but  improve  their  parts  and  abilities 
for  the  service  of  the  colonies,  and  for  this  purpose  the 
Conimissioners  for  the  Massachusetts  were  desired  to 
advise  with  the  General  Court  and  elders  there,  for  the 
ordering  such  a  course,  and  how  such  scholars  may  be 
employed  and  encouraged,  when  they  leave  the  college 
either  in  new  plantations,  or  as  school-masters,  or  in  ships, 
till  they  be  called  and  fitted  for  other  service.' 

Although  the  eldest  colony  in  this  confederacy  could 
date  its  origin  only  from  1G20,.  that  laudable  ambition 
which  seeks  for  national  immortality  in  the  pages  of  his- 


140  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

tory  was  already  felt,  and  these  humble  pilgrims  were 
desirous  of  giving  to  the  world  and  leaving  to  their  pos- 
terity the  story  of  the  events  of  their  pilgrimage  in  the 
wilderness.  The  Commissioners  adopted  the  following 
declaration,  which  may  have  led  to  the  publication  of 
New  England's  Memorial  by  Nathaniel  Morton,  in  1669. 

'  Whereas  our  good  God  hath  from  the  first  dune  great 
things  for  his  people  in  these  colonies,  in  sundry  respects 
worthy  to  be  written  in  our  hearts  with  a  deep  and  cha- 
rected  impression  not  to  be  blotted  out,  and  forgotten  to 
be  transmitted  to  posterity,  that  they  may  know  the  Lord, 
and  how  he  hath  glorified  his  grace  and  mercy  in  our  foun- 
dations and  beginnings,  that  they  aLso  may  trust  in  him, 
and  walk  with  a  right  foot  before  him  without  warping 
and  declining.  It  is  desired  by  the  Commissioners,  that 
all  the  colonies,  (as  they  may,)  would  collect  and  gather 
up  the  many  special  providences  of  God  towards  them 
since  their  arrival  and  settling  in  these  parts,  how  he  hath 
made  room  for  them,  how  his  hand  hath  been  with  thi  m 
in  laying  their  foundations  in  church  and  commonwealth  ; 
how  he  hath  cast  the  dread  of  his  people,  (weak  in  them- 
selves,) upon  the  Indians,  scattered  their  councils,  broken 
their  plots  and  attempts,  and  continued  our  peace,  (not- 
withstanding their  insolencies,  rage,  and  malice,)  made 
gratuitous  provision  for  us,  and  in  all  respects  hath  been 
a  sun  and  shield  to  us,  and  that  memorials  being  made, 
they  may  be  duly  communicated  and  seriously  considered, 
that  no  thing  be  mistaken  but  that  history  may  be  com- 
piled according  to  truth  with  due  weight,  by  some  able 
and  fit  man  appointed  thereunto.' 

The  Commissioners  again  met  in  Boston,  July  26, 
1647. 

Thomas  Dudley  and  John  Endicott  from  Massachu- 
setts ;    William  Bradford,  John  Brown  from  Plymouth  ; 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  141 

Edward  Hopkins  and  Capt.  John  Mason  from  Connecticut ; 
Theophilus  Eaton  and  Stephen  Goodyeare  from  J\evv 
Haven. 

Thomas  Dudley  of  Massachusetts,  was  chosen  presi- 
dent. 

The  Commissioners  recommended  to  the  several  Gene- 
ral Courts  that  the  articles  of  confederation  be  so  far 
altered  that  the  day  of  the  annual  meeting  might  be  left 
indefinite,  and  that  the  attendance  of  six  should  be  suffi- 
cient to  enable  them  to  transact  business. 

Connecticut  had  claimed  a  contribution  from  all  ves- 
sels and  merchandize  passing  down  the  Connecticut  river 
to  keep  the  fort  at  Saybrook  in  repair,  which  Springfield, 
(considered  within  the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts,)  had 
refused  to  pay..  This  subject  had  been  laid  before  the 
Commissioners  at  their  previous  meeting,  and  it  was  now 
decided  by  the  Commissioners  from  Plymouth  and  New 
Haven,  (those  colonies  not  being  interested,)  that  Spring- 
field should  pay  2d.  on  each  bushel  of  corn,  and  20s.  for 
each  hogshead  of  beaver  passing  down  the  river,  but  that 
they  would  hear  any  deputy  from  Massachusetts  or  from 
Springfield  who  should  object  to  the  imposition,  and  con- 
sider his  objections  at  a  future  meeting. 

Mr  Dunster,  the  president  of  the  College,  laid  before 
the  Commissioners  the  following  queries. 

'  I.  Whether  you  be  willing  to  submit  the  youth  of  your 
colonies  that  be  or  shall  be  students,  so  far  to  the  college 
discipline  administered  by  the  president  and  fellows,  and 
in  cases  arduous  by  the  advice  of  the  overseers,  that  what- 
soever punishment  shall  be  inflicted  for  the  demerits,  ac- 
cording to  the  laws  of  said  college,  shall  noways  infringe 
any  privilege  or  honorable  exhibition  from  your  colonies 
to  the  college,  and  whether  you  do  not  give  your  appro- 
bation to  the  said  laws.' 


142  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

'  11.  Whereas  upon  the  seasonable  motion  of  Mr 
Thomas  Shepard  ihe  several  colonies  agreed  firmly  to 
contribute  to  the  furtherance  of  learning  in  the  college, 
the  disposal  whereof  hath  wholly  been  left  tome  hitherto, 
wherein  I  have  already  found  some  cases  difficult  to  my- 
self, and  which  may  be  dangerous  in  time  ensuing  to 
others,  unless  by  your  councils  they  be  regulated,  there- 
fore have  I  thought  it  necessary  to  propound  to  your  wis- 
dom these  following  questions. 

First.  '  Whereas  that  way  is  by  free  contributions 
wherein  every  colony,  town,,  and  family,  take  to  themselves 
to  be  at  liberty  to  give  or  vvithhokl,  if  therefore  some 
colonies  or  towns  in  them  shall  give  nothing,  yet  out  of 
the  said  places  well  deserving  scholars  shall  come,  whether 
then  these  shall  be  as  capable  of  these  contributions,  as 
such  as  come  from  other  colonies  that  do  contribute  libe- 
rally, and  consequently  if  these  supplies  shall  be  extended 
to  scholars  coming  from  foreign  places,  as  old  England, 
Virginia,  and  the  like? 

'  Secondly.  Whether  in  any  case  you  give  way  that  any 
of  the  said  supplies  be  diverted  from  the  society  for  the 
maintenance  of  school  scholars,  and  if  so,  in  what  cases .'' 

'  Thirdly.  Whether  we  shall  have  respect  in  disposal  of 
the  said  contributions  to  all  the  scholars  in  general,  (as 
by  maintenance  of  common  officers,  or  the  like,)  or  es- 
pecially to  such  as  are  poor,  pious,  and  learned,  the  three 
usual  qualifications  looked  at  in  such  cases,  and  whether 
any  scholar  from  the  college  above  a  month  shall  have 
his  exhibition  continued. 

'  Fourthly.  Whether  any  scholars  that  have  had  these 
exhibitions,  shall  account  themselves  so  engaged  to  stay 
in  the  country,  as  that  they  may  not  go  away  without 
offence,  and  if  so,  then  what  way  they  may  disengage 
themselves. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  243 

'Fifthly.  Feeing  the  contributions  of  the  colony  have 
already  amounted  to  above  £50  per  annum,  and  if  the 
first  proposition  of  Is.  a  family  were  attended,  they  would 
amount  to  much  more,  whether  therefore  if  the  said  exhi- 
bitions were  collected  by  some  faitliful  officers,  constable, 
or  tfie  like,  and  presented  to  the  General  Courts,  or  their 
betrusted  in  the  said  colonies,  and  thereof  a  fit  proportion 
as  they  themselves  shall  see  good,  allotted  to  the  college 
£8  per  annum  for  a  scholarship,  and  £1G  per  annum  for  a 
fellowship,  and  the  rest  for  the  maintenance  of  scholars 
at  the  grammar  school  in  the  plantations  where  these  col- 
lections are  made,  the  said  course  would  be  more  honora- 
ble and  orderly  to  the  colonies  and  college,  and  more 
satisfactory  to  the  people,  when  they  shall  see  how  their 
gifts  are  bestowed,  and  how  themselves  may  reap  the 
fruit  of  them  both  at  home  and  abroad.' 

'  Sixthly,  Whether  it  is  expected  that  pious,  diligent, 
and  learned  graduates,  should  be  elected  fellows,  as 
emergent  occasion  shall  require,  and  that  then  they  should 
have  for  their  encouragement  the  stipend  due  from  such 
scholars  as  are  under  their  tuition,  which  for  the  present 
is  a  considerable  part  of  the  president's  maintenance, 
therefore  we  humbly  entreat  you  to  state  what  you  think 
to  be  a  mere  allowance  for  the  president,  and  whence  it 
shall  arrive. 

'  Seventhly,  Seeing  from  the  first  evil  contrival  of  the 
college  building  there  now  ensues  yearly  decays  of  the 
roof,  walls,  and  foundation,  which  the  study  rents  will  not 
carry  forth  to  repair.  Therefore  we  present  it  to  your 
wisdom  to  propound  some  way  to  carry  an  end  to  this 
work. 

'Eighthly,  Seeing  the  public  library  of  the  college  is 
yet  defective  in  all  manner  of  books,  especially  in  law, 
physic,    philosophy,   and    mathematics,    the     furnishing 


J  44  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

whereof  would  be  both  honorable  and  profitable  to  the 
country  in  general,  and  in  a  special  to  the  scholars,  whose 
various  inclinations  to  all  professions  might  thereby  be 
encouraged  and  furthered,  we  therefore  humbly  entreat 
you  to  use  such  means  as  your  wisdom  shall  think  meet 
for  supply  of  the  same. 

'  NinUily,  Seeing  it  will  be  of  concernment  and  en- 
couragement to  the  students  that  the  degrees  here  taken 
may  be  so  accounted  in  England,  and  we  are  informed  of 
the  readiness  of  some  masters  of  colleges  there  to  enter- 
tain and  promote  such  a  motion,  we  therefore  desire  your 
advice  and  furtherance  in  this  matter.  So  praying  for  the 
blessing  of  the  Lord  upon  all  your  consultations  for  the 
welfare  of  the  United  Colonies.  I  humbly  take  my  leave 
and  rest  your  willing  servant,  Henry  Dunster.' 

The  Commissioners  answered  the  queries  of  the  presi- 
dent. 

'  Firstly,  They  do  conceive  that  all  who  send  any  youths 
to  the  college  do  eo  facto  submit  and  leave  them  to  the 
college  discipline,  as  is  usual  in  such  cases  in  all  places 
in  Europe. 

'  Secondly,  They  deemed  it  equitable  that  the  colonies 
who  contributed  the  most  should  be  prefered, '  though  they 
would  also  that  deserving  youths  from  other  places  (re- 
commended from  such  colonies  as  do  contribute)  be  not 
neglected.' 

'  Thirdly,  They  express  themselves  against  any  diversion 
of  the  supplies  '  for  the  maintenance  of  Grammar  school 
scholars,  the  several  plantations  making  provision  in  these 
kinds  within  the  several  jurisdictions. 

'  Fourthly,  The  supplies  granted  by  the  several  colonies 
were  first  intended  for  the  support  and  encouragement  of 
poor,   pious,  and  learned   youths,'  but  in  case  none  such 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  145 

applied,  the  funds  might  be  '  employed  for  the  common 
advantage  of  the  college.' 

'Fifthly,  The  Commissioners  judged  that  those  who 
have  benefit  by  the  contributions  of  the  colonies,  should 
be  engaged  to  attend  the  service  of  the  country  upon  ten- 
der of  employment  and  maintenance  suitable  to  their 
condition,  and  state  of  the  country.'  Such  scholars  as 
refused  to  acquiesce,  '  should  be  engaged  in  convenient 
time  to  repay  what  they  have  received  from  the  colonies.' 

'  Sixthly,  The  Commissioners  promise  to  promote  con- 
tributions, but  refuse  to  alter  the  mode.  The  considera- 
tion of  the  other  particulars  are  referred  to  the  wisdom 
and  piety  of  the  General  Court  for  this  colony.' 

It  is  certainly  a  source  of  genuine  pleasure  to  reflect 
on  the  nursing  care  which  the  United  Colonies  of  New 
England  bestowed  on  the  infant  institution  at  Cambridge. 
While  the  country  was  yet  a  wilderness,  through  which 
savage  men,  and  savage  animals,  continued  to  prowl  — 
while  the  abilities  of  all  were  taxed  to  the  uttermost  to 
guard  against  danger,  defend  their  firesides,  and  procure 
subsistence,  the  interests  of  learning  were  not  overlooked, 
but  were  made  by  the  guardians  of  the  general  weal,  a  sub- 
ject for  grave  and  serious  discussion. 

The  English  settlement  on  Pequot  river  was  adjudged 
to  be  in  Connecticut. 

The  Commissioners  met  at  Plymouth,  July  7th,  1648. 
John  Endicott  and  Simon  Bradstreet  attended  from  Massa- 
chusetts; William  Bradford  and  John  Brown  from  Ply- 
mouth ;  Edward  Hopkins  and  Roger  Ludlow  from  Con- 
necticut; Theophihis  Eaton  and  John  Astwood  from  New 
Haven.     William  Bradford  was  elected  president. 

The  precedence  of  the  colonies  was  established  as 
follows:  1.  Massachusetts,  2.  Plymouth,  3.  Connecticut, 
4.  New  Haven.      '  Only  it  is  provided   that  any  Commis- 

PART   u.  19 


146  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

sioner  may  manifest  such  personal  respects  as  in  his  own 
discretion,  he  judge  mete  to  any  of  the  rest  of  the  Com- 
missioners.' 

A  petition  of  the  following  tenor  was  presented  in 
behalf  of  Rhode  Island,  praying,  '  that  we  the  Islanders 
of  Roode  Island,  may  be  received  into  combination  with 
all  the  United  Colonies  of  New  England,  in  a  firm  and 
perpetual  league  of  friendship  and  amity  ;  of  offence  and 
defence,  mutual  advice,  and  succor  upon  all  just  occasions 
for  our  mutual  safety  and  welfare,  and  for  preserving  of 
peace  amongst  ourselves,  and  preventing  as  much  as  may 
be  all  occasions  of  war  and  difference,  and  to  this  our 
motion  we  have  the  consent  of  the  major  part  of  our 
Island.  William  Coddington, 

Alexander  Partridge.' 

To  which  motion  the  Commissioners  returned  this 
answer  under  all  their  hands  :  '  Mr  Coddington  and  Captain 
Partridge. —  The  Commissioners  for  the  United  Colonies' 
have  considered  that  you  have  propounded  either  by 
speech  or  writing,  and  find  your  present  stiile  full  of  con- 
fusion and  danger,  having  much  disturbance  amongst 
yourselves^,  and  no  security  from  the  Indians,  they  desire 
therefore  in  several  respects  to  afford  both  advice  and 
help;  but  upon  the  perusal  of  the  ancient  patent  granted 
to  New  Plymouth,  they  find  Roade  Island  upon  which 
your  plantations  are  settled,  to  fall  within  their  line  and 
bounds,  which  the  honorable  Committee  of  Parliament 
think  not  fit  to  streighten  or  infringe,  nor  may  we  :  if 
therefore  yourselves,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  most,  and 
most  considerable  part  of  them,  upon  a  due  consideration 
of  Plymouth  patent  and  right,  acknowledge  yourselves 
within  that  jurisdiction,  we  shall  consider  and  advise  how 
you  may  be  accepted  upon  just  terms,  and  with  tender 
respects  to  your  conveniency  ;  and  shall   afford  you  the 


MEMOIR  OF   PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  147 

same  advice,  protection,  and  help,  which  other  plantations 
within  the  United  Colonies  enjoy,  which  we  hope  in  sun- 
dry respects  may  tend  to  your  comfort  and  safety.' 

Had  the  island  of  Rhode  Island  acceeded  to  this  propo- 
sition, and  united  itself  with  Plymouth,  it  might  have 
been  followed  by  consequences  having  a  powerful  influ- 
ence not  only  upon  their  own,  but  upon  the  destinies  of 
New  England.  The  feeble  settlements  at  Providence, 
Patuxet,  and  Warwick,  could  not  have  been  sustained  as 
independent  jurisdictions  ;  eventually  they  also  would 
have  sought  a  union  with  Plymouth  ;  the  islands  of  Nan- 
tucket and  Martha's  Vineyard  would  have  pursued  the 
same  course  ;  with  such  an  accession  of  territory,  and 
with  so  much  capacity  for  the  acquisition  of  wealth,  Ply- 
mouth would  have  remained  a  separate  government,  and 
eventually  would  have  become  one  of  the  states  of  the 
Union  ;  a  state  distinguished  for  striking  peculiarities  ; 
dividing  in  portions  nearly  alike,  unequalled  advantages 
for  the  successful  prosecution  of  agriculture,  commerce, 
navigation,  and  manufactures,  the  great  departments  of 
human  exertion  and  industry  ;  with  a  population  in  nearly 
equal  proportions  of  independent  farmers,  skilful  artisans, 
and  enterprising  sailors,  presenting  by  strong  analogies 
and  resemblances,  an  epitome  of  England. 

A  representation  on  the  part  of  Massachusetts  was  pre- 
sented by  their  Commissioners  proposing  some  alterations 
in,  and  expressing  some  doubts  as  to  the  just  construction 
of  the  articles  of  confederation. 

They  propose  that  the  word  safety  in  the  second  arti- 
cle, should  be  construed  to  mean,  '  safety  only  from  an 
enemy,  not  from  common  providences  as  famine,  pesti- 
lence, same  of  common  welfare.' 

'2.  The  scope  of  the  eighth  article  to  extend  only  to 
causes  which   concern  divers  of  the  colonies,   (not  any 


148  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

one  in  itself,)  or  some  one  or  more  of  the  colonies  and 
some  neighbor  plantations  not  within  the  confederation, 
and  by  Indians  to  be  meant  Indian  strangers  or  such 
neighbor  Indians  as  are  not  in  subjection  to  the,  &c,  the 
government  of  the  colonies. 

'  3.  Commissioners  not  to  have  power  to  appoint  officers 
to  carry  their  orders  into  effect,  but  the  same  be  executed 
by  the  officers  of  such  jurisdiction  as  shall  be  concerned 
therein,'  if  such  jurisdiction  shall  not  submit  and  perform, 
after  a  due  admonition  then  to  be  responsible  to  the  rest 
of  the  colonies  for  breach  of  league  and  covenant,  and  to 
be  declared  what  further  power  the  Commissioners  have 
in  such  cases,  or  what  will  be  fit  to  be  done  in  case  any 
colony  should  change  their  religion  professed,  &c. 

'  4.  When  a  reference  in  case  of  disagreement  is  to  be 
made  to  the  four  General  Courts,  to  provide  that  the  assent 
of  three  shall  be  sufficient  to  bind  the  whole. 

*  5.  Triennial  instead  of  annual  meetings,  were  pro- 
posed. 

'  6.  As  the  proportion  of  the  expenses  of  Massachu- 
setts was  in  the  ratio  of  five  to  one  of  any  of  the  other 
colonies,  it  was  proposed  to  increase  the  number  of  their 
Commissioners  to  three,  and  if  any  colony  would  bear  the 
same  proportion  of  expense,  the  number  of  their  Com- 
missioners also  to  be  increased  to  three. 

'  7.  It  was  proposed  to  the  Commissioners  that  some 
more  equal  mode  of  apportioning  expenses  be  devised. 

'  Whereas  there  be  divers  orders  made  by  the  Commis- 
sioners, (as  about  admission  of  Church  members,  main- 
tenance of  scholars  at  Cambridge,  about  a  general  trade, 
&c,  as  in  the  book  of  records  of  the  Commissioners'  Acts, 
do  more  fully  appear,  all  which  orders  are  only  by  way 
of  advice  to  the  General  Courts  of  the  several  colonies, 
yet  forasmuch  as  orders  by  way  of  advice  are  in  some 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  149 

Introduction  to  orders  where  the  advice  is  not  followed,  it 
is  to  be  propounded  if  it  were  not  seasonable  to  be  de- 
clared, that  in  such  cases  if  any  of  the  colonies  shall  not 
think  fit  to  follow  such  advice,  the  same  not  to  be  ac- 
counted, any  offence  or  breach  of  any  article  of  our  con- 
federation, or  to  give  power  or  occasion  to  the  Com- 
missioners to  proceed  to  any  act  of  authority  in  such 
case.' 

The  committee  of  Massachusetts  then  go  into  a  long 
argument  to  convince  the  Commissioners  of  the  impro- 
priety of  compelling  Springfield  to  pay  any  contribution 
for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  the  fort  at  Saybrook. 

'1.  The  Commissioners  in  their  reply  disclaim  any 
power  under  the  words  "  safety  and  welfare,"  of  making 
any  orders  or  laws  in  cases  of  fjimine  and  pestilence. 

'2.  They  appear  to  agree  with  the  committee  in  their 
construction  of  the  eighth  article  of  confederation. 

'  3.  Though  the  Commissioners  consider  and  order  in 
the  public  concernments  of  the  colonies  within  the  com- 
pass of  their  trust  and  power  contained  in  the  articles  as 
in  all  treaties  concerning  peace  and  war,  sending  messen- 
gers, appointing  generals  and  other  officers  for  war,  when 
all  the  colonies  are  interested,  appointing  numbers  of 
men,  ordering  provision  and  charges  necessary  for  the 
service,  giving  commission,  taking  accounts  concerning 
offenders,  and  all  things  of  like  nature,  which  are  the 
proper  concomitants  or  consequents  of  such  a  confedera- 
tion, yet  the  execution  to  belong  to  the  jurisdiction  wherein 
the  commissioners  sit,  or  where  the  offender  is  or  may  be 
found,  and  to  the  magistrates  and  other  inferior  officers 
but  so  that  if  the  magistrates  or  the  officers  do  deny  or 
delay  execution  in  any  case  proper  to  the  Commissioners' 
cognizance,  and  wherein  the  other  colonies  are  interested 
and  many  suffer  such  jurisdiction  to  be  responsible  for 


150  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

breach  of  covenant ;  but  what  shall  be  done  in  such  case^ 
or  in  case  any  colony  shall  change  their  religion  pro- 
fessed, they  conceive  cannot  be  now  so  well  resolved,  as 
when  the  case  in  the  compass  and  with  all  circumstances 
shall  be  considered.' 

'  4.  The  Commissioners  approved  the  project  of  making 
the  General  Courts  of  three  colonies  competent  to  certain 
decisions  instead  of  requiring  the  whole.  Of  the  sixth 
and  seventh  propositions  of  Massachusetts  for  changing 
the  compact  they  disapprove.' 

With  respect  to  the  contribution  imposed  on  Spring- 
field the  Commissioners  seem  to  adhere  to  their  former 
opinions. 

The  Commissioners  recommended  that  the  last  wills  and 
testaments  of  persons  deceased  in  any  one  of  the  colonies, 
and  there  approved  and  allowed,  should  be  authoritative 
in  the  other  colonies,  and  so  of  administrations. 

An  extraordinary  meeting  of  the  Commissioners  was 
holden  at  Boston,  July  23,  1649. 

The  Commissioners  of  Plymouth  and  New  Haven,  Mr 
Bradstreet  from  Massachusetts,  and  Mr  Hopkins  from  Con- 
necticut, were  rechosen ;  Thomas  Dudley  supplied  the 
place  of  Mr  Endicott,  and  Thomas  Wells  that  of  Roger 
Ludlow. 

Thomas  Dudley  of  Massachusetts  was  elected  presi- 
dent. 

Massachusetts,  in  order  to  retaliate  the  duties  imposed 

on  Springfield,  ordered  duties  to  be  imposed  on  all  furs, 
corn-meal,  and  biscuit  corning  within  their  jurisdiction 
from  the  other  confederated  colonies. 

'Upon  a  question  betwixt  the  two  colonies  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  Plymouth  formerly  propounded  and  now 
again  renewed  by  the  Commissioners  of  the  Massachu- 
setts, concerning  a  tract  of  land  now  or  lately  belonging 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  151 

to  Pomham  and  Saconoco,  two  Indian  sagamores,  who 
liad  submitted  themselves  and  their  people  to  the  Massa- 
chusetts government,  upon  part  of  which  land  some  Eng_ 
lish,  (besides  the  said  Indians,)  in  Anno.  1643,  were 
planted  and  settled  ;  the  Commissioners  for  Connecticut 
and  New  Haven  remembering  and  duly  considering  what 
had  passed  in  Anno.  1643,  and  in  Anno.  1646,  did  and  do 
still  conceive  that  the  Commissioners  for  Plymouth  did 
consent  and  agree  that  the  aforesaid  tract  of  land,  though 
it  fall  within  Plymouth  bounds,  should  be  and  from  thence 
forward  acknowledged  as  a  part  and  under  the  Massachu- 
setts jurisdiction  ;  nor  doth  it  yet  appear  that  Plymouth, 
when  those  conclusions  of  the  Commissioners  Anno.  1643, 
were  read  in  the  General  Court,  did  protest  and  doth  de- 
clare against  it,  that  the  Massachusetts  might  have  con- 
sidered their  way  before  they  expended  so  much  charge 
in  Samuel  Gorton's  business  ;  but  what  direction,  council 
and  order  Plymouth  Commissioners  had  from  their  Gene- 
ral Court  so  to  do,  we  understand  not ;  and  what  power 
any  of  the  Commissioners  have  to  resign  or  pass  over  any 
tract  of  land  within  their  patent  to  another  jurisdiction, 
without  consent  and  express  license  from  the  General 
Court  interested  and  concerned  therein,  is  of  weighty 
consideration  to  all  the  colonies  ;  they  therefore  advise 
and  desire  that  by  a  neighborly  and  friendly  treaty  a  due 
consideration  may  be  had,  and  a  course  settled,  both  about 
the  charges  expended,  and  how  Pomham  and  Saconoco 
with  their  people  may  be  governed  and  protected.' 

'  Mr  Dudley  one  of  Commissioners  for  the  Massachu- 
setts, and  president  for  this  meeting,  being  lately  fallen 
sick  and  unable  to  attend  the  present  occasion  in  hand  ; 
the  other  Commissioner  for  the  Massachusetts  declared 
himself  unsatisfied  with  this  return  of  the  Commissioners 
of  Connecticut  and   New  Haven,  as  seeming  to  detract 


152  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

from  the  conclusions  of  the  Commissioners  in  the  case  in 
Anno.  IG43,  and  in  Anno.  164G,  where  the  lands  in  ques- 
tion seem  to  be  granted  and  adjudged  to  the  government 
of  the  Massachusetts,  and  the  way  propounded  not  likely 
to  issue  the  present  ditference,  there  having  been  trial 
formerly  made  thereof,  but  without  effect.  The  like  un- 
satisfiedness  he  expressed  in  the  last  answer  or  reply  of 
the  Commissioners  for  Connecticut,  but  for  the  reason 
before  mentioned  and  present  straights  of  times,  defers 
replying  to  some  other  opportunity.' 

'  The  Commissioners  for  Connecticut  and  New  Haven 
who  were  present  in  the  former  agitations,  conceive  that 
they  have  retracted  nothing  in  any  respect  from  what  they 
did  in  Anno.  1643,  and  in  Anno.  1646,  and  therein  refer 
to  an  indifferent  and  due  consideration  of  those  passages, 
and  what  is  now  declared.  But  they  profess  they  never 
thought  themselves  interested  in  the  question  betwixt  the 
Massachusetts  and  Plymouth,  unless  as  witnesses  in  both 
those  years,  they  being  neither  concerned  in  Samuel 
Gorton's  business,  or  in  the  tr.-ict  of  land  in  question,  but 
concurred  in  what  was  just  and  warrantable,  that  a  due 
peace  might  be  settled  for  the  comfort  of  all  the  colo- 
nies.' 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Commissioners  at  New  Haven  in 
1651,  the  following  letter  was  presented  from  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Warwick. 

'  May  it  please  this  honored  committee  to  take  know- 
ledge that  we,  the  inhabitants  of  Sowamett  alias  Warwick, 
having  undergone  divers  oppressions  and  wrongs  amount- 
ing to  a  great  damage  since  we  first  possessed  this  place, 
being  forced  thereby  to  seek  to  that  honorable  State  of 
Old  England  for  relief,  which  did  inevitably  draw  great 
charge  upon  us  to  the  further  impairing  of  our  estates, 
and  finding  favor  for  redress,   we  were  willing  to  waive 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  153 

for  that  time,  (in  regard  to  the  great  troubles  and  employ- 
ment that  then  lay  on  that  State,)  all  other  losses  and 
wrongs  we  then  underwent,  so  thai  we  might  be  replanted 
m  and  upon  that  our  purchased  possession,  and  enjoy  it 
peaceably  for  time  to  come,  without  disturbance  or  moles- 
tation by  those  from  whom  we  had  formerly  suffered  ;  but 
since  our  gracious  grant  fr(jm  the  honorable  Parliament, 
in  replanting  of  us  in  this  place  we  have  been,  and  daily 
are  pressed  with  intolerable  grievances  to  the  eating  up 
of  our  labors  and  wasting  of  our  estates,  making  our  lives 
together  with  our  wives  and  children  bitter  and  uncom- 
fortable ;  insomuch  that  groaning  under  our  burthens,  we 
are  constrained  to  make  our  addresses  to  that  honorable 
Parliament  and  State  once  again  to  make  our  just  com- 
plaint against  our  causeless  molesters,  who,  by  themselves 
and  their  agents,  are  the  only  cause  of  this  our  reuttering 
of  our  distressed  condition. 

'  May  it  please,  therefore,  this  honored  assembly,  to  take 
notice  of  this  our  solemn  intelligence  given  unto  you  as 
the  most  public  authorized  society  appertaining  unto  and 
instituted  in  the  United  Colonies,  whom  our  complaints  do 
concern,  that  we  are  now  preparing  ourselves  with  all 
convenient  speed  for  old  England,  to  make  our  grievances 
known  again  to  that  Slate,  which  fall  upon  us  by  reason 
that  the  order  of  Parliament  of  England  concerning  us 
hath  not  been  observed,  nor  the  enjoyment  of  our  granted 
privileges  permitted  to  us  ;  that  we  are  as  it  were  bought 
and  sold  from  one  patent  and  jurisdiction,  to  another.' 

The  commissioners  again  met  at  Hartford,  September 
5th,  1650.  Simon  Bradstreet  and  Captain  William  Haw- 
thorne from  iMassachusetts;  Thomas  Prence  and  John 
Browne  from  Plymouth  ;  Edward  Hopkins  and  John 
Haynes   from   Connecticut ;   Theophilus  Eaton   and  Ste- 

PART    II.  20 


154  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

phen  Goodyere  from  New  Haven.      Edward   Hopkins  oi 
Connecticut  was  chosen  president. 

Connecticut  was   permitted   to   receive  East  Hampton 
upon  Long    Island   into  its  jurisdiction,  'if  they  submit.' 

The  next  annual  meeting  of  the  Commissioners  was 
holden  at  New  Haven,  September  4th,  IGol. 

The  commissioners  of  Massachusetts  and  New  Haven, 
Mr  Browne  of  Plymouth,  and  Mr  Hopkins  of  Connecticut, 
were  rechosen.  Timothy  Hatherly  supplied  the  place  of 
Governor  Prence,  and  Roger  Ludlow  that  of  Governor 
Haynes.  Theophilus  Eaton  of  New  Haven,  was  chosen 
president. 

The  Commissioners  addressed  the  following  letter  to  Mr 
Coddington,  then  governor  of  Rhode  Island. 

<SiR, —  We  are  informed  that  it  hath  pleased  the  Par- 
liament or  Council  of  State,  to  commit  the  public  trust  of 
government  in  the  island  unto  your  hands,  wherein  we 
cannot  but  desire  that  truth  and  righteousness  may  so 
flourish,  that  the  gospel  professed  by  the  English  in  this 
wilderness  may  not  be  brought  under  any  just  reproach. 
It  is  presented  to  us,  that  some  notorious  delinquents  who 
are  liable  to  highest  censures,  making  escape  out  of  several 
of  the  colonies,  repair  to  your  island  as  to  a  city  of  refuge^ 
hoping  thereby  to  avoid  the  stroke  of  justice,  and  we  may 
well  expect  offenders  in  like  and  other  kind  will  be  easily 
apprehensive  of  their  advantages  and  improve  them  for 
the  future,  if  such  door  be  open,  which  occasioneth  us  to 
direct  these  few  lines  to  yourself,  and  desire  to  receive 
information  from  you  and  from  your  council,  what  we  may 
expect  in  the  forementioned  cases,  or  when  any  fugitives 
out  of  any  of  the  English  United  Colonies  shall  hereafter 
seek  shelter  there  :  Whether  ujkju  certificate  from  some 
of  the  magistrates  of  the  feveral  jurisdictions  where  the 
offences  committed  may  be  best  understood,  and  receive 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  155 

Its  due  censure,  you  will  deliver  up  and  return  such 
delinquents  and  fugitives  to  be  proceeded  with  in  their 
proper  place,  according  to  their  demerits,  as  the  colonies 
upon  due  consideration  for  the  promoting  of  justice  and 
righteousness  find  cause  to  do  amongst  themselves,  or 
whether  you  intend  to  receive  and  keep  such  under  your 
protection,  until  they  be  pursued  and  impleaded  in  your 
courts,  and  the  respective  cases  there  issued,  as  we  hear 
hath  been  sometimes  pretended,  which  we  judge  very 
obstructive  to  the  ways  of  justice.  We  shall  add  no  more 
but  our  due  respects  to  yourself,  and  so  rest  • 

'  Your  very  loving  friends.' 

Mr  Dunster  the  President,  and  the  Fellows  of  Harvard 
College,  having  addressed  a  letter  to  the  Commissioners 
on  the  state  of  the  College  buildings,  the  Commissioners 
replied,  and  close  with  saying,  '  The  Commissioners  will 
propound  to,  and  improve  their  several  interests  in  the 
colonies,  that  by  pecks,  half-bushels,  and  bushels  of  wheat, 
according  as  men  are  free  and  able,  the  College  may  have 
some  considerable  yearly  help  towards  their  occasions, 
and  herein  if  the  Massachusetts  please  to  give  a  leading 
example  the  rest  may  probably  the  more  readily  follow.' 

A  communication  was  received  from  John  Green,  Jr, 
town-clerk  of  Warwick,  in  behalf  of  that  town,  reciting 
the  various  abuses  which  they  had  received  from  iMassa- 
chusetts,  and  expressing  an  intention  of  appealing  to 
Parliament  ;  the  people  of  Warwick  complain  that  '  they 
were  bought  and  sold  from  one  patent  and  jurisdiction  to 
another;'  of  warrants  summoning  them  to  the  courts  of 
Massachusetts  executed  by  the  officers  of  that  colony  ; 
of  the  Indians  counselled  by  evil-minded  English,  killing 
their  cattle,  offering  violence  to  their  families,  and  the 
last,  of  vilifying  the  authority  of  Parliament,  and  claiming 
justification  under  the  authority  of  Massachusetts,  of  pre- 
venting their  commerce,  and  holding  their  estates. 


156  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Massachusetts  by  her  Commissioners  replied  that  the 
lands  of  Warwick  had  been  voluntarily  ceded  by  the 
Indian  sachems  who  were  the  original  proprietors  to  the 
government  of  Massachusetts  ;  that  Plymouth  who  had 
claimed  an  interest  therein,  had  voluntarily  surrendered 
it  to  Massachusetts,  who  thus  became  possessed  both  of 
the  Englisli  and  Indian  title  ;  that  the  seizure  of  Gorton, 
who  was  a  trespasser,  had  been  acquiesced  in  by  all  the 
confederated  colonies  ;  but  that  Gorton  and  his  company 
had  been  permitted  to  reside  on  those  lands  without  mo- 
lestation, notwithstanding  the  repeated  complaints  I  oth  of 
English  and  Indians  ;  '  the  inhabitants  of  Warwick  never 
exhibited  any  complaints  to  the  jurisdiction  of  Massa- 
chusetts, of  any  wrongs  or  injuries  done  them  by  English 
and  Indians  there,  which  had  they  done,  they  should  have 
received  equal  justice  with  any  other.' 

'  And  when  there  arose  a  difference  betwixt  the  Massa- 
chusetts and  Plymouth  concerning  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
aforesaid  place,  the  government  of  Plymouth  not  allowing 
'  of  what  their  Commissioners  had  done  therein  ;  though 
for  a  long  time  they  had  been  silent,  the  Commissioners  of 
Massachusetts  referred  the  determination  of  that  difference 
to  the  rest  of  the  Commissioners  at  Boston,  in  Anno  1G49, 
who  advised  to  issue  the  same,  by  hearing  a  neighborly 
treaty  betwixt  the  two  jurisdictions  of  the  Massachusetts 
and  Plymouth,  whereupon  the  General  Court  of  the  INIassa- 
chusetts  sent  two  deputies  to  the  General  Court  of  Ply- 
mouth, with  Commissioners  and  instructions  to  resign  and 
submit  the  aforesaid  lands  and  persons  residing  therein, 
to  the  government  of  Plymouth,  they  only  promising  to 
do  equal  justice  both  to  English  and  Indians  there, 
according  to  our  engagements,  but  the  government  of 
Plymouth  chose  rather  to  ratify  and  confirm  the  aforesaid 
resignation  of  their   Commissioners,  which   accordingly 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  I57 

was  done   by  an  authentic   writing    signed    by  the   gov- 
ernor, &c.' 

The  court  of  Massachusetts  finding  Gorton  still  refrac- 
tory, 'desired  the  advice  of  the  rest  of  the  Commissioners 
at  Hartford  in  Anno  1650,'  and  on  grounds  of  expediency 
were  again  advised  by  them  to  resign  these  lands  to  Ply- 
mouth. Massachusetts  again  tendered  a  resignation  of 
the  lands,  which  Plymouth  again  refused  ;  out  of  their 
own  stock  they  had  supplied  a  considerable  quantity  of 
corn  to  the  Indians  living  there,  to  replace  their  corn 
which  had  been  destroyed  by  Gorton's  cattle.  The  Com- 
missioners of  Massachusetts  conclude  their  declaration 
with  an  inquiry  as  to  the  extent  of  support  and  aid  which 
they  might  expect  to  receive  from  the  other  confederated 
colonies  should  Gorton  still  prove  refractory  and  resist. 

The  Commissioners  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven, 
after  reciting  the  various  proceedings  respecting  these 
lands,  conclude  their  declaration  by  saying  :  '  the  Com- 
missioners, therefore,  fearing  some  inconvenience,  would 
provide  remedy,  but  know  not  what  to  add  to  the  advice 
given  in  Anno  1650,  concerning  trespasses,  but  that 
which  is  proved  to  be  recovered  if  no  other  means  will 
serve  by  legal  force  ;  but  with  as  much  moderation  as  may 
be,  lest,  from  a  course  of  continued  offences,  further 
quarrels  and  acts  of  hostility  should  spring  and  grow  be- 
twixt the  inhabitants  of  Warwick  and  their  aforemen- 
tioned neighbors.' 

The  Commissioners  of  Plymouth  appear  to  have  been 
much  at  variance  with  their  brethren  of  Massachusetts  in 
their  declaration,  and  rather  inclined  to  favor  Gorton. 
They  say,  '  taking  knowledge  of  the  long  declaration  of 
the  Massachusetts  Commissioners  collected  out  of  pieces 
of  passages  of  many  years,  and  being  unsatisfied  there- 
with, thought  meet  to  declare  themselves  that  what  was 


ISS  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

done  by  Mr  Winslow  and  Mr  Collier,  the  ComnnissionefS 
of  Plymouth  in  Anno  1G43,  concerning  the  resignruion 
up  of  any  lands  which  Plymouth  had  interest  in,  was  not 
at  all  in  their  power  to  resign  up  any  part  of  Plymouth's 
jurisdiction  to  the  Massachusetts.  Neither  could  the 
Massachusetts  receive  any  such  resignation  without  being 
injurious  to  the  third  and  sixth  articles  of  con'ederation, 
(if  any  had  been  made.)  And  Mr  Winslow  and  Mr 
Collier  have  several  times  publicly  denied  that  they  either 
did  or  intended  to  resign  any  part  of  the  jurisdiction  of 
Plymouth  to  the  Massachusetts,  and  by  what  right  of  au- 
thority the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  had  to  send 
for  Samuel  Gorton,  inhabiting  so  far  out  of  their  jurisdic- 
tion we  understand  not,  and  how  just  their  censure  was 
we  know  not,  or  what  part  of  censure  they  have  sus- 
pended, and  upon  what  grounds  we  apprehend  not;  and 
concerning  any  reference  put  to  the  determination  of  the 
rest  of  the  Commissioners  at  Boston  in  Anno  ]G49,  the 
Commissioners  of  Plymouth  referred  none,  and  what  au- 
thentic writing  the  governor  of  Plymouth  signed,  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Commissioners  do  not  show,  but  if  they  mean  a 
writing  signed  by  the  governor  of  Plymouth  and  some  par- 
ticular persons  joining  with  him,  bearing  date  the  7th 
of  June,  1650,  we,  the  Commissioners  of  Plymouth  for 
our  particular  persons,  cannot  own  it,  having  protest- 
ed against  it  in  the  court  of  Plymouth,  as  being  di- 
rectly contrary  to  the  order  of  the  honorable  committee 
of  the  parliament  of  England,  and  contrary  to  the  arti- 
cles of  confederation  with  the  rest  of  the  colonies.' 

'  And  whereas  we  are  informed  that  the  court  of  Mas- 
sachusetts have  lately  sent  out  several  summons  or  war- 
rants to  several  persons  inhabiting  Warwick,  alias  Sho- 
wamet  and  Patuxet,  and  have  made  seizure  upon  some  of 
their  estates,  we  do  hereby  protest  against  such  proceed- 
ings, if  any  such  be.' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  159 

Tt  might  hnve  been,  that  Plymouth,  indifferent  at  first, 
made  but  slight  objection  to  the  assumption  of  jurisdic- 
tion over  Showamet  or  Warwick  by  Massachusetts,  but  as 
that  tract  became  more  valuable  by  improvement,  Ply- 
mouth might  have  become  unwilling  to  renounce  any  pos- 
sible title,  although  there  might  not  have  been  much 
confidence  in  its  legality. 

The  Con)niissioners  met  at  Boston  in  May,  1653  ;  present, 
John  Endicott,  William  Hathorne,  from  Massachusetts; 
William  Bradford,  John  Browne,  from  Plymouth  ;  Roger 
Ludlow,  John  Cullick,  from  Connecticut;  Theophilus 
Eaton,  John  Astwood,  from  New  Haven. 

John  Endicott  was  chosen  President. 

In  expectation  of  a  war  with  the  Dutch,  it  was  voted  to 
raise  five  hundred  soldiers,  to  be  apportioned  as  follows  — 

Massachusetts,  -              -              333 

Plymouth,          -  -              -          60 

Connecticut,  -              -                65 

New  Haven,      -  -              -         42 

Major  General  Daniel  Dennison  was  appointed  com- 
mander. 

'  The  Commissioners  being  informed  that  the  Corpora- 
tion in  England,'  had  sent  over  arms  and  ammunition, 
ordered  the  same  to  be  divided  according  to  the  value  as 
estimated  in  money. 

To  Massachusetts,  -         -     £232     8  3 

Plymouth,         -  -         -         -     43     6  3 

Connecticut,          -  -         -          45     5  2 

New  Haven,  -         -         -     37    13  0 

Another  meeting  was  held  at  Boston  in  the  same  month 
in  consequence  of  the  expiration  of  some  of  the  Commis- 
sions. 


I  60  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Simon  Bradstreet  took  the  place  of  Governor  Endicott. 

The  others  remained. 

Mr  Bradstreet  was  chosen  president. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Commissioners  at  Boston,  Septem- 
ber 1,  1653,  present, —  Simgn  Bradstreet,  William  Ha- 
thorne,  from  Massachusetts  ;  Thomas  Prence,  John 
Browne,  from  Plymouth  ;  Roger  Ludlow,  John  Cullick, 
from  Connecticut ;  Theophilus  Eaton,  John  Astwood,  from 
New  Haven. 

Simon  Bradstreet,  of  Massachusetts,  was  chosen  presi- 
dent. 

A  communication  was  submitted  from  the  General  Court 
of  Massachusetts,  in  which  they  made  some  question  as 
to  the  power  of  the  Commissioners  to  bind  the  colonies 
to  support  an  offensive  war. 

The  Commissioners  from  the  other  colonies  signed  a 
special  declaration,  (Sept.  2,)  in  which  they  impugn  the 
doctrines  of  Massachusetts,  as  '  tending  to  break  the  con- 
federation ;  for  they  conceive  that  neither  colonies  nor 
Commissioners  will  find  encouragernnt  to  bear  such 
charges,  and  make  such  journeys  upon  such  uncertain  and 
unsatisfying  terms.' 

On  the  sixth,  a  more  explicit  declaration  was  received 
from  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  in  which  they 
denied  that  '  the  several  jurisdictions  arc  subordinate  or 
subject  to  the  authority  of  the  Commissioners,  and  there- 
fore not  bound  \x\  foro  civili  to  their  determinations,  nor 
act  according  to  their  judgments  in  making  offensive  war, 
leagues  or  aids  because  potestas  belligerendi  aut  pads 
sanctiend'KZ  salva  majestate  Imperii  eripi  nequet ;  not- 
withstanding if  their  judgment  and  determination  be  just 
according  to  the  word  of  God,  we  do  acknowledge  the 
colonies  to  be  bound  to  act  accordingly  ;  not  only  in  foro 
conscientia,  because  their  determinations  are  just;  but  in 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  IGI 

J'oro  civili,  because  of  the  contract  and  league  between 
the  confederates,  although  not  by  the  authority  of  the 
Commissioners.' 

This  was  a  difficult  question  — '  To  whom  could   the 
power  be  given  to  interpret  the  will  of  God  ? ' 

The   Commissioners   of  the   three  smaller  colonies  re- 
plied on  the  same  day.   They  recurred  to  that  article  of  the 
confederation  by  which  six  out  of  the  eight  Commission- 
ers '  should  have  full  power  to  hear,  examine,  weigh,  and 
determine  all  affairs  of  war  and  peace,  leagues,  aids  pro- 
per  to    the   confederation,    &c.'      They    continue,   '  the 
power  of  determining  cannot  be  taken  from  the  Commis- 
sioners without   violation  of  the   covenant;  they  have  no 
power  to  make  new  articles,  nor  may  act  as  Commission- 
ers if  the  former  be  broken,  but  shall  acquaint  their  seve- 
ral respective  General  Courts  with  the  final  conclusion  of 
this  colony,  dated  and  received   this  day,  and  leave  it  to 
their   consideration  ;  propounding  only   to   yours  whether 
it  will  not  be  a  great  sin  against   God,  and  very  scanda- 
lous, and  a  consideration  five  years  under  deliberation  in 
New  England,  and  since    continued    ten    years   without 
inconvenience ;    nay   with    a    blessing,    a    confederation 
wherein  every  article  and   every  clause  in  every  article 
was  considered    and  weighed  not  only   by  a   committee 
from  the   four  jurisdictions,   but  by   the  whole  General 
Court  then  sitting ;  a  confederation,  for  which  prayer  was 
put  up   while  it  was  under   treaty,  and  public   thanks  re- 
turned when  it  was  finished,  should    by  this  court  be  first 
disturbed,  and  a  strained  interpretation  as  if  the   articles 
gave  no  power  to  the   Commissioners  to  act  in   offensive 
wars,  leagues,  aids,  et  cetera.     They  must  meet  only  to 
give  advice  ;  which  any  of  the  several  jurisdictions  may 
take  or  leave,   as  themselves  see  cause,  and  so   make  all 
void,  that  because  the  majesty  or  honor  of  government 

PART    II.  21 


162  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

cannot  be  preserved,  if  the  power  of  making  war  and  set- 
tling be  in  the  hands  of  Commissioners  chosen 
generally  out  of,  and  by  the  freemen  of  the  four  colonies, 
which  by  the  confederation  are  made  and  ordered  to  con- 
tinue, and  be  called  by  the  name  of  the  United  Colonies 
of  New  England,  who  by  the  covenant  and  league,  sol- 
emnly, seriously,  and  religiously  made,  must  necessarily 
break  and  be  dissolved  ;  but  whether  this  violation  pro- 
ceed from  some  unwarrantable  scruple  of  conscience,  or 
from  some  other  engagement  of  spirit,  the  Massachusetts 
neither  express,  nor  will  the  Commissioners  determine, 
but  leave  it  to  the  wise  and  righteous  God  who  is  only 
Lord  of  the  consciences  and  spirits  of  men.' 

The  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  addressed  another 
communication  to  the  Commissioners,  in  which  they  dis- 
claimed all  intention  of  violating  the  articles,  but  assert 
their  object  was  solely  to  have  the  Commissioners  explain 
or  construe  the  articles,  but  as  they  had  denied  that  they 
had  the  power  so  to  do,  they  should  refer  the  question  to 
the  several  General  Courts ;  they  disclaim  any  intention 
to  deny  to  the  Commissioners  the  power  '  to  hear,  weigh, 
examine,  and  determine  all  affairs  of  peace,  war,  leagues, 
aids,  &c,  proper  to  the  confederation.'  '  Neither  (say  they) 
did  we  ever  imagine,  and  therefore  wonder  it  should  at  least 
seemingly  be  imposed  upon  us,  that  any  one  colony  or 
General  Court  alone  had  power  to  act  for  the  rest ;  or 
that  we  do  affirm  the  Commissioners  must  meet  only  to 
give  advice,  which  tiie  several  jurisdictions  may  take  or 
leave,  as  themselves  see  cause,  and  so  make  all  void  ;  have 
we  not  in  terms  acknowledged  ourselves  bound  to  act 
according  to  their  just  determination  before  God  and  man 
by  virtue  of  our  confederacy,  though  not  by  any  other 
authority  ?  What  bounds  would  you  lay  upon  us  ?  Can 
we  be  imagined  to  be  obliged  to  act  the  determinations 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  IQ3 

of  more  than  eight  of  the  ablest  and  wisest  gentlemen  in 
all  the  colonies,  were  we  not  bound  by  our  confederation  • 
We  may,  therefore,  with  less  otlence,  challenge  and  assert 
our  own  interest,  because  we  are  ready  to  give  others 
their  due  ;  neither  is  it  a  point  of  majesty  or  honor  we 
labor  for,  but  an  essential  part  of  that  entire  government 
which  is  reserved  to  either  colony  in  the  articles,  before 
the  very  office,  much  more  the  power  of  Commissioners, 
be  provided,  for  which  being  preserved  to  us  inviolable, 
we  shall  be  far  from  opposing  the  power  of  the  Commis- 
sioners, but  do  acknowledge  ourselves  bound  to  assert  and 
defend  the  same,  but  if  our  own  rights  are  invaded,  we 
shall  be  thereby  disenabled  from  maintaining  either, 
though  we  desire  to  keep  ourselves  free  from  infringing 
them  ;  we  shall  not  take  upon  us  to  determine  the  cause 
of  this  contest  between  the  court  and  yourselves,  we  shall 
challenge  the  like  liberty  with  the  Commissioners,  and 
leave  it  to  the  Lord,  the  judge  of  the  spirits  of  all  men.' 

The  Commissioners  with  the  exception  of  those  of 
Massachusetts,  in  their  answer  maintain  again  the  truth 
of  their  construction  of  their  powers  under  the  articles 
of  confederation,  and' conclude  — '  we  have  sufficiently 
expressed  our  apprehensions,  and  shall  only  add  that  when 
any  authority  imposeth  penalties  in  cases  wherein  the 
subject  cannot  according  to  God  obey,  guilt  will  be 
charged  ;  Joab  sinned  in  obeying  in  the  death  of  Uriah, 
and  David  had  sinned,  and  he  punished  Joab  for  disobe- 
dience to  such  a  command.  As  no  colony  hath  power  to 
act  for  the  rest,  so  no  one  colony  withi;i  the  covenant  of 
confederation  may  to  the  prejudice  of  the  rest  reject  the 
determination  of  the  Commissioners  not  manifestly  unjust. 
That  peculiar  jurisdiction  which  the  articles  reserve  to 
each  colony,  the  Commissioners  never  questioned,  nor 
they  hope  shall  ever  have    any  thought  in  the   least  to 


164  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

encroacii  upon ;  but  wherein  that  consists,  yourselvcs^ 
expressed  in  your  propositions,  1648,  before  mentioned,  and 
by  a  due  consideration  of  the  passages  in  other  articles 
compared  with  the  eleventh,  you  may  possibly  receive 
further  light.' 

'  To  conclude,  we  may  safely  (to  say  no  more)  protest 
our  own  readiness  to  preserve  the  articles  in  their  full 
strength,  and  to  attend  our  duty  in  the  present  meeting, 
obstructions  cast  in  by  this  Court  being  duly  removed ;  if 
you  therefore  please  to  express  your  resolutions  to  continue 
the  just  power  of  the  Commissioners  according  to  the 
true  sense  of  the  articles,  as  till  this  year  ever  intended 
and  understood  both  by  yourselves,  and  by  all  the  other 
till  any  other  articles,  explanation,  or  provision  be  agreed 
by  the  four  General  Courts,  the  Commissioners  shall 
presently  cheerfully  proceed ;  if  not,  they  desire,  without 
further  loss  of  time,  they  desire  to  return  to  their  other 
occasions,  and  shall  close  with  your  close,  leaving  the 
whole  cause  to  the  wise  and  just  judge  who  knows  both 
our  several  aims,  and  all  the  passages  betwixt  us  in  this 
dispute.' 

To  this  Massachusetts  returned  the  following  laconic 
answer.  '  We  see  not  reason  to  protract  time  in  fruitless 
and  needless  returns,  we  shall  acquiesce  in  our  last  paper, 
and  commit  the  success  to  God.' 

Mr  Bradstreet  and  Mr  Hathorne,  the  two  Commissioners 
of  Massachusetts,  took  the  bold  step  of  publicly  dis- 
approving and  disavowing  the  opinions  of  their  General 
Court  in  the  following  paper,  which  they  both  signed. 

'  Notwithstanding  what  formerly,  or  at  this  present 
meeting  hath  passed  belwixt  the  General  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  the  honored  Commissioners  of  the  other 
colonies,  as  relating  to  the  articles  of  confederation 
wherein  we  are  not  engaged,  yet  at  the  beginning  of  this 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  Ig5 

sessions  and  divers  times  since,  one  of  us,  so  now  again 
jointly  we  do  earnestly  desire  and  request  that  forthwith 
we  attend  the  occasions  of  the  colonies  according  to  the 
articles  of  confederation,  professing  ourselves  willing 
and  ready  to  act  therein,  according  to  our  best  light,  and 
the  commission  granted  by  our  Court ;  always  desiring 
and  (as  God  shall  help  us)  resolving  to  keep  ourselves 
free  from  having  any  share  in  the  breac  hof  the  solemn 
and  perpetual  confederation  which  manifestly  tendeth 
thereunto,  and  the  sad  consequences  thereof  that  may 
ensue.' 

September  9th,  1653. 

The  Commissioners  with  the  exception  of  those  from 
Massachusetts,  signed  a  declaration  in  which  they  ex- 
pressed their  determination  to  abide  by  their  decisions. 

This  produced  a  semi-disavowal  on  the  part  of  the 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  of  the  imputation  of 
designing  to  violate  the  articles  of  confederation,  con- 
cluding with  a  declaration,  '  that  they  judged  and  granted 
that  by  the  articles  of  confederation,  so  far  as  the  deter- 
minations of  the  Commissioners  are  just  and  according  to 
God,  the  several  colonies  are  bound  before  God  and  men 
to  act  accordingly,  and  that  they  sin  and  break  covenant 
if  they  do  not,  but  otherwise  we  judge  we  are  not  bound 
neither  before  God  nor  men.' 

This  drew  from  the  six  Commissioners  the  following 
answer. 

'  The  Commissioners  for  the  three  colonies  judged  of 
the  meaning  of  the  Massachusetts  General  Court  by  their 
expressions  in  former  writings,  and  accordingly  returned 
answers  to  which  they  still  refer,  what  the  Court  doth  this 
day  declare,  the  Commissioners  so  far  accept,  that  they 


166  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

purpose  presently  to  proceed,  referring  all  further  questions 
to  the  addresses  the  JMassachuselts  shall  please  to  make 
to  the  other  General  Courts.' 

September  10th,  1653. 

This  disorganizing  proceeding  on  the  part  of  Massa- 
chusetts arose  from  their  strong  dislike  to  a  war  with  the 
Dutch  and  Ninnigret,  one  of  the  Narragansett  sachems. 
Although  that  government  might  have  had  good  reasons 
for  their  dislike  to  engage  in  this  war,  yet  it  would  hardly 
justify  the  breach  of  faith  which  a  violation  of  the  articles 
of  confederation  would  have  involved. 

The  Commissioners  notwithstanding  the  reluctance  of 
Massachusetts,  undertook  to  make  hostile  preparations, 
and  required  the  several  colonies  to  raise  two  hundred 
and  fifty  men  in  the  following  proportions,  namely,  Massa- 
chusetts, one  hundred  and  si.\tysix,  Plymouth,  thirty, 
Connecticut,  thirtythree,  and  New  Haven,  twentyone. 
Mr  Bradstreet  entered  his  protest  against  this  measure. 
Massachusetts  was  still  refractory,  and  their  Council  sig- 
nified to  the  Commissioners  '  that  not  seeing  suflicient 
grounds  either  from  any  obligation  of  the  English  towards 
the  Long  Islanders,  or  from  the  usage  the  messengers 
received  from  the  Indians,  or  from  any  other  motive  pre- 
sented to  our  consideration,  or  from  all  of  them;  and 
therefore  dare  not  exercise  our  authority  to  levy  force 
within  our  jurisdiction  to  undertake  a  present  war  against 
the  said  Ninnigret.' 

The  Commissioners  after  voting  '  that  they  had  just 
grounds  of  a  war  against  the  Dutch,'  signed  another 
declaration  against  the  conduct  of  Massachusetts,  in 
which  they  conclude  as  follows.  '  But  the  Massachusetts 
refusing  to  act  as  by  a  writing  this  day  received  from  their 
Council  appeareth,  in  raising  men  to  be  sent  against  Nin- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

nigret,  the  Nyantick  sachem,  according  to  a  clear  vote 
wherein  seven  of  the  Commissioners  did  fully  concur,  they 
apprehend  the  Massachusetts  have  actually  broken  their 
covenant,  but  what  damages  may  hereby  grow  to  the 
other  colonies,  they  leave  to  such  discoveries  as  the  wise 
God  shall  please  to  make,  and  to  the  consideration  of  the 
several  General  Courts  therein  concerned ;  only  they  de- 
clare that  the  vote  concerning  the  justice  of  a  war  against 
the  Dutch  upon  the  grounds  herein  mentioned,  was  twice 
voted. 

'  September  24th,  1653.' 

Mr  Bradstreet  in  his  counter  declaration,  denies  the 
right  of  the  Commissioners  to  make  an  offensive  war,  '  the 
colonies  are  not  bound  (says  Mr  Bradstreet)  to  act  in  any 
offensive  war  according, to  the  determination  of  the  Com- 
missioners, further  than  the  same  is  just  and  according  to 
God;'  and  again,  '  knowing  and  solemnly  professing  that 
according  to  my  best  knowledge  and  understanding,  it  is 
not  the  mind  of  our  Council  or  General  Court  to  oppose 
the  determination  of  the  Commissioners  further  than  they 
conceive  the  same  to  oppose  the  mind  of  God  ;  and  upon 
this  account  I  earnestly  request  that  due  regard  may  be 
had  to  the  judgments  and  consciences  of  others  pious  and 
prudent,  that  are  so  deeply  concerned  herein,  and  that  in 
care  of  blood,  and  though  at  present  we  cannot  be  all 
like-minded,  that  yet  our  christian  moderation  may  appear 
as  in  other  respects,  so  especially  in  reference  to  an  offen- 
sive war  with  Indians  or  others,  till  the  mind  of  God  do 
more  fully  appear.  Remembering  it  will  be  no  grief  of 
heart  to  any  of  us  when  we  come  to  give  up  our  accounts, 
that  we  have  neither  shed  blood  causelessly,  nor  drawn 
others  to  do  it,  upon  the  grounds  not  clear  to  them,  how- 
ever possibly  satisfactory  to  yourselves.' 


167 


1(58  MEMOIR  O^   PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

To  this  the  Commissioners  reply. 

'  The  Commissioners  as  one  man,  without  any  dissent, 
have  formerly  fully  expressed  themselves  that  any  deter- 
mination of  theirs  manifestly  unjust  bindeth  not,  but  the 
Council  of  Massachusetts  refusing  to  raise  men  against 
Ninnigret,  allege  not,  much  less  prove,  that  any  part  of 
their  conclusions  is  unjust,  or  breaketh  any  rule  of  God, 
so  that  in  this  refusal  they  return  to  their  former  purposes 
and  resolutions,  that  the  Commissioners  should  only  act  as 
counsellors  to  advise,  and  the  General  Courts  may,  and  the 
Massachusetts  Council  will  attend  so  far  as  they  see  cause 
for  ^  posestas  belli  gerendi  aut  pads  sanctiendce  salvo 
majestate  imperii  eripe  JYequit,  which  may  stand  with  a 
kingdom,  commonwealth,  or  with  the  Massachusetts  juris- 
diction uncombined,  but  not  as  they  stand  in  confederation 
with  the  other  colonies,  who  have  made  the  Commissioners 
their  repesentatives,  to  hear,  examine,  weigh  and  determine 
in  matters  of  war,  peace,  leagues,  aids,  &c,  as  by  the 
express  words  of  that  solemn  covenant  appears  ;  and  as  it 
can  be  no  grief  of  heart  to  spare  guiltless  blood,  so  it  is 
a  duty  to  require  the  blood  of  innocents  who  depend  on 
us  for  safety ;  and  probably  suffer  for  their  faithfulness  to 
the  English,  as  being  their  tributaries  and  approved 
friends  so  murtherously  and  so  expressly  against  Ninni- 
gret's  covenant,  speed  to  recover  their  wives  and  children 
from  so  unjust  a  captivity,  to  vindicate  the  honor  of  our 
nation,  and  secure  ourselves  and  friends  from  the  inso- 
lency  and  outrage  of  such  barbarous  and  bloody  men.' 

Mr  Bradstreet  also  dissented  from  all  the  other  Com- 
missioners, (including  his  colleague  Mr  Hathorne,)  as  to  the 
justice  and  expediency  of  the  war  with  the  Dutch. 

The  government  of  Massachusetts  still  dissatisfied, 
addressed  a  communication  to  that  of  Plymouth,  proposing 
four  queries. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  Igg 

*  1.  Whether  the  reason  of  the  Commissioners  be  the 
reason  of  all  the  General  Courts. 

'2.  Wliether  notwithstanding  the  determinations  of  the 
Commissioners  of  the  Courts  in  cases  of  greater  concern- 
ments ought  not  to  be  satisfied  of  the  justice  of  their 
determination,  before  they  proceed  to  act. 

'  3.  Whether  it  can  consist  with  the  preservation  of  entire 
power  of  governments  reserved  to  the  several  jurisdictions 
that  the  judicial  or  authoritative  determination  of  peace 
and  war  should  be  in  the  hands  of  six  Commissioners,  who 
as  such  are  not  members  of  any  court,  and  may  probably 
be  no  members  of  a  dissenting  jurisdiction. 

'  4.  Whether  the  Commissioners  as  Commissioners  be 
subject  to  the  General  Courts  of  the  several  jurisdictions 
to  wliich  they  beli)ng,  or  the  jurisdictions  and  General 
Courts  be  subject  to  the  Commissioners.' 

They  conclude  the  communication  by  saying,  '  the 
articles  we  conceive  give  occasion  for  these  and  many 
other  questions  of  the  like  nature,  and  therefore  needs 
explanation  or  reconciliation  according  to  the  true  nature 
of  a  confederation  which  is  the  preservation  of  the  power 
of  governments  of  every  jurisdiction  ;  not  the  stating  of 
any  powers  in  Commissioners  otherwise  than  subordinate 
and  subservient  to  that  end.  The  concordance  of  your 
answer  (in  these  particulars)  with  our  apprehensions  will 
put  an  end  to  our  differences  and  beget  a  right  under- 
standing between  us  ;  but  because  we  cannot  assure  our- 
selves thereof  in  every  particular,  and  being  seriously 
desirous  of  the  continuation  of  our  amity,  we  propose  to 
your  consideration  that  a  committee  be  chosen  by  each 
jurisdiction,  to  treat  and  agree  upon  such  explanation  or 
reconciliation  of  the  articles  of  confederation  as  shall  be 
consistent  with  our  true  meaning,  the  nature  of  confede- 
racy, and  the  power  and  authority  of  every  government ; 

PART    II.  22 


170  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

which  being  presented  to  the  several  General  Courts  may 
be  acknowledged,  ratified,  and  confirmed.' 

To  this  the  government  of  Plymouth  returned  the 
following  answer. 

*  Much   Honored  Friends, 

'  The  unexpected  and  less  welcome  intelligence  that  we 
received  upon  the  return  of  our  Commissioners  from  tht*ir 
last  and  most  uncomfortable  meeting,  hath  administered 
just  ground  to  us  to  let  you  understand  how  sadly  we 
resent,  and  how  deeply  we  are  affected  with  that  sad 
breath  of  the  confederation  on  your  part  acted,  especially 
at  such  a  time  as  this,  wherein  our  enemies  may  be  occa- 
sioned not  only  to  insult  over  us,  but  also  to  reproach  the 
name  of  God  and  his  ways,  vvhich  we  profess,  which  upon 
whose  account  it  will  be  charged,  we  leave  to  considera- 
tion, and  pass  on  to  express  our  thoughts  in  answer  to 
yours  dated  the  13th  of  September,  1663,  which  after  due 
consideration,  we  conceive  (reserving  due  respects  to 
yourselves  dissenting)  that  the  articles  of  confederation 
are  so  full  and  plain  that  they  occasion  not  any  such 
queries  for  their  further  explanation  or  meeting  of  a  com- 
mittee for  such  purpose,  it  seeming  unto  us  to  be  obvious 
to  any  impartial  eye  that  by  the  said  articles  the  Commis- 
sioners are  the  representatives  of  the  several  colonies,  and 
therefore  what  they  act  and  determine  according  to  that 
power  given  them  in  such  matters  as  are  expressly  in- 
cluded in  the  said  articles,  may  justly  be  interpreted  as 
the  sense,  reason,  and  determination  of  the  several  juris- 
dictions which  have  substituted  thereunto,  and  the  several 
colonies  may  and  ought  to  acquiesce  as  if  themselves  had 
done  it,  which  may  stand  without  prejudice  to  the  preserva- 
tion of  each  colony  entire  to  its  own  proper  jurisdiction  ; 
Commissionersacting  in  their  proper  places,  and  the  several 
jurisdictions  in  their  places  not  intermeddling  in  the  affairs 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  171 

o^«2ch  Other  as  such,  which  is  duly  provided  for  in  the 
thir.i  and  sixth  articles;  neither  will  it  allow  us  any  ab- 
surdity if  granted,  that  in  things  just  acted  by  the  Com- 
missioners within  their  proper  sphere,  the  General  Courts, 
be  subject  unto  them,  and  yet  the  Commissioners  subject 
to  their  respective  General  Courts  in  any  mul-administra- 
tions  of  their  trusts  and  power  in  things  proved  un- 
doubtedly to  be  unjust,  where  the  rule  holds  true,  better 
obey  God  than  man,  whether  commissioners,  kings,  or 
courts,  for  all  which  in  other  societies,  para. lei  cases  as 
you  very  well  know  may  be  produced.' 

The  next  meeting  of  the  Commissioners  was  holden  at 
Hartford,  on  the  7th  of  September,  1654  ;  present  Simon 
Bradstreet  and  Daniel  Dennison  from  Massachusetts ; 
Thomas  Prence  and  John  Browne  from  Plymouth  ;  John 
Mason  and  John  Webster  from  Connecticut ;  Theophilus 
Eaton  and  Francis  Newman  from  New  Haven.  The- 
ophilus Eaton  was  chosen   president. 

Massachusetts  now  gave  up  the  controversy,  and  after 
considerable  discussion  renounced  their  former  construc- 
tion of  the  articles  of  confederation  in  a  writing  of  the 
following  tenor. 

'To  the  intent  all  former  differences  and  offences  may 
be  issued,  and  determined,  and  forgotten,  betwixt  Massa- 
chusetts and  the  rest  of  the  confederate  colonies,  we  do 
hereby  profess  it  to  be  our  judgments,  and  do  believe  it 
to  be  the  judgment  of  our  General  Court,  that  the  Com- 
missioners, or  six  of  them,  have  power  according  to  the 
articles  to  determine  the  justice  of  all  wars,  &c.  That 
our  General  Court  hath  and  doth  recall  that  interpretation 
of  the  articles  which  they  sent  to  the  Commissioners  at 
Boston,  dated  2d  of  June,  1653,  as  it  appears  by  that 
interpretation  and  concession  of  our  Court  presented  to 
the  Commissioners  in  September  last ;  and  do  acknow- 


J  Y2  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY, 

ledge  themselves  bound  to  execute  the  determinations  of 
the  Commissioners  according  to  the  literal  sense  and  true 
meaning  of  the  artirles  of  confederation,  so  far  as  the 
said  determinations  are  in  themselves  just  and  according 

to  Lroa.  'Simon  Bradstreet, 

Daniel  Dennison.* 
'September  11th,  1654. 

'The  Commissioners  for  the  other  colonies  do  accept  of 
the  foregoing  writing  to  the  intents  and  purposes  therein 
expressed  ;  provided  the  Genertil  Court  of  the  Massachu- 
setts at  their  next  meeting  do  certify  to  the  other  tliree 
General  Courts  their  consent  thereunto,  and  profess  to  act 

accordingly.  «Theophilus  Eaton,  President. 

'Thomas  Prence, 
'  John  Browne, 

'  John  Mason, 
«  John  Webster, 
'Francis  Newman.' 

Considerable  warmth  had  been  excited  in  consequence 
of  the  seizure  of  a  vessel  belonging  to  the  colony  of  New 
Plymouth,  by  Thomas  Baxter,  under  color  of  a  commission 
from  Rhode  Island.  The  vessel  belonged  to  Samuel  Mayo 
of  Barnstable,  and  was  while  under  the  command  of  John 
Dickinson,  (employed  in  conveying  the  goods  of  William 
Leverich,  the  minister  of  Sandwich,  who  was  about  com- 
mencing a  settlement  at  Oyster  Bay  on  Long  Island,) 
seized  at  Hampstead  harbor,  within  the  Dutch  juris- 
diction. 

The  Commissioners  despatched  Lieutenant  William 
Hudson  to  Rhode  Island  to  demand  satisfaction. 

Mr  Easton,  the  governor  of  Rhode  Island,  denied  any 
authority  in  Baxter  to  make  this  seizure,  and  the  owners 
engaging  to  prosecute  the  offender,  the  affair  subsided. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  I73 

The  Commissioners  met  at  Hartford,  September  7th, 
1G54,  as  has  been  already  staled. 

The  next  meeting  was  at  New  Haven,  September  6th, 

1655.  The  Commissioners  from  Massachusetts  were  re- 
appointed, as  well  as.jMr  Browne,  Major  John  Mason,  and 
Mr  Eaton.  Captain  James  Cudworth  appeared  from  Ply- 
mouth in  the  room  of  Governor  Bradford.  John  Cjllich 
from  Connecticut  in  place  of  Mr  Webster,  and  William 
Leete  Irom  New  Haven  in  the  place  of  Mr  Astjvood.  Mr 
Eaton  was  chosen  president. 

The    next    meeting  was  at  Plymouth,    September   4th, 

1656.  Mr  Bradstreet  and  General  Dennison  were  re- 
chosen  from  Massachusetts  ;  Governor  Bradford  and  Gov- 
ernor Prence  were  chosen  by  Plymouth  ;  John  Mason  and 
John  Talcott  by  Connecticut ;  Messrs  Leete  and  Eaton  by 
New  Haven.  William  Bradford  of  Plymouth  was  chosen 
president. 

The  Commissioners  addressed  an  affectionate  letter  to 
the  church  at  Hartford,  where  great  differences  had  arisen, 
advising  peace  and  mutual  forbearance.  . 

They  also  subscribed  the  following  declaration,  with  a 
view  to  call  forth  a  general  history  of  the  confederated 
colonies. 

'To  the  end  that  the  works  of  God  and  his  goodness 
which  hath  been  great  towards  his  people  in  their  first 
planting  of  this  desolate  wilderness  may  never  be  forgot- 
ten, but  to  be  kept  in  a  thankful  and  perpetual  remem- 
brance to  the  praises  of  his  grace,  and  comf  )rt  of  posterity, 
and  that  the  generations  to  come  may  truly  understand 
the  main  ends  and  aims  proposed  in  our  transmigration 
hither  from  our  dear  native  country,  and  the  great  things 
that  God  hath  done  for  their  fathers,  we  thought  it  no  less 
than  our  duty  to  commend  it  to  the  several  General 
Courts,  that  they  would    please   to  appoint   some   meet 


174  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

persons  in  each  jurisdiction  to  collect  the  special  and 
remarkable  passages  of  God's  providence  towards  us,  since 
the  first  arrival  of  the  English  in  these  parts,  which  col- 
lecticjns  being  brought  to  the  next  meeting  of  the  Com- 
missioners  at  Boston,  some  one  fitly  qualified  may  be 
appointed  and  desired  to  compose  the  same  into  a  history 
and  prepare  it  for  the  press.' 

Plymouth  had  been  settled  thirtysix,  Massachusetts 
twentysix,  and  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  less  than 
twenty  years,  and  the  passion  for  historical  immortality  was 
roused  ;  having  prophetic  anticipations  of  the  greatness  of 
the  end,  they  were  anxious  to  clear  the  commencement  of 
all  obscurity,  and  to  shew  posterity  '  what  manner  of  men 
they  were,'  and  the  great  things  which  God  had  wrought 
for  them. 

In  consequence  of  this  declaration,  Secretary  Morton 
compiled  the  '  Memorial,'  the  earliest  history  of  New 
England,  but  he  too  much  neglected  the  philosophy  of 
history,  for  the  relation  of  special  providence,  and  mi- 
raculous interpositions. 

On  the  3d  of  September,  1657,  the  Commissioners  met 
at  Boston.  The  Commissioners  of  the  preceding  year 
were  all  rechosen,  except  Governor  Bradford,  who  had 
died  ;  his  place  was  supplied  by  Captain  James  Cudworth. 
Mr  Bradstreet  was  chosen  president. 

On  the  2d  of  September,  1653,  they  met  at  Boston. 
John  Endicott  and  Simon  Bradstreet  were  chosen  by 
Massachusetts  ;  Thomas  Prence  and  Josias  Winslow  by 
Plymouth ;  John  Winthrop  and  John  Talcott  by  Con- 
necticut;  Francis  Newman  and  William  Leete  by  New 
Haven.      Governor  Endicott  was  chosen  president. 

The  Commissioners  met  at  Hartford,  September  1st, 
1659.  Simon  Bradstreet  and  Major  General  Dennison, 
from  Massachusetts  ;  Josias  Winslow  and  Thomas  South- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  175 

worth  from  Plymouth  ;  John  Winthrop  and  Thomns  Wells 
from  Connecticut ;  Francis  Newman  and  William  Leete 
from  New  Haven. 

John  Winthrop  was  chosen  President. 

Much  controversy  took  place  at  this  meeting  about  the 
respective  rights  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  to  the 
Pequot  country,  both  claiming.  The  Commissionors  of 
Plymouth  and  New  Haven,  to  whom  the  question  was 
referred,  did  not  determine  it,  but  found  them  to  be  joint 
conquerors. 

The  Commissioners  being  all  rechosen,  excepting  Mr 
Wells  of  Connecticut,  in  whose  place  Matthew  Allin  was 
elected,  met  at  New  Haven,  September  6th,  1660. 
Francis  Newman  was  chosen  president. 

The  Commissioners  recommended  to  the  several  General 
Courts  to  regulate  the  mackerel  fishery  '  considering  the 
fish  is  the  most  staple  commodity  of  this  country.' 

They  also  determined  that  their  next  meeting  should  be 
at  Rehoboth,  in  the  Plymouth  jurisdiction.  The  last  vote, 
however,  was  not  carried  into  effect,  as  the  Commissioners 
met  at  Plymouth,  September  5th,  1661 

Mr  Bradstreet  and  General  Dennison  were  again  chosen 
by  Massachusetts  ;  Governor  Prence  and  Thomas  South- 
worth  by  Plymouth  ;  John  Mason  and  Samuel  Willis  by 
Connecticut ;  Governor  Leete  and  Benjamin  Fen  by  New 
Haven.     Governor  Prence  was  chosen  president. 

The  Commissioners  presented  the  New  Testament 
printed  in  the  Indian  language,  to  King  Charles  II.,  ac- 
companied with  a  long  and  loyal  letter. 

The  next  meeting  was  at  Boston,  September  4th,  1662. 
General  Dennison  and  Thomas  Danforth  appeared  from 
Massachusetts  ;  Governor  Prence  and  Josias  Winslow  from 
Plymouth  ;  Samuel  Willis  and  John  Talcott  from  Con- 
necticut ;  Governor  Leete  and  Benjamin  Fen  from  New 
Haven.     General  Dennison  was  chosen  president. 


176  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Much  complaint  was  made  at  this  session  of  the  intru- 
sion of  the  Rhode  Iskinders  into  the  Narragansett  country, 
and  a  communication  was  made  to  the  government  of  that 
colony. 

The  next  meeting  of  the  Commissioners  was  at  Boston, 
September  3d,  16(33.  Present,  Simon  Bradstreet  and 
Francis  Danforth  from  Massachusetts  ;  John  Winthrop 
and  John  Talcotl  from  Connecticut.  The  Commissioners 
of  Plymoutli  and  New  Haven  were  rechosen.  Simon 
Bradstreet  was  elected  president. 

The  controversy  between  Massachusetts  and  Connecti- 
cut respecting  the  Pequot  lands  was  revived,  but  nothing 
definitive  was  done. 

The  next  meeting  was  at  Hartford,  September  1st,  1664. 
Massachusetts  was  represented  by  Simon  Bradstreet  and 
Thomas  Danforth  ;  Plymouth  by  Josias  Winslow  and 
Thomas  Southworth  ;  Connecticut  by  Matthew  Allin  and 
Samuel  Willis ;  New  Haven  by  Governor  Leele  and 
William  Jones.     Mr  Bradstreet  was  chosen  president. 

King  Charles  H.,  by  letter  recommended  Thomas  Chis- 
sick,  John  Scott,  John  Winthrop,  Daniel  Dennison,  Simon 
Bradstreet,  Thomas  Willett,  Richard  Smith,  Edward 
Hutchinson,  Amos  Richardson,  John  Alcock,  William 
Hudson,  and  their  associates,  holding  estates  in  the  Nar- 
ragansett country  derived  from  Major  Atherton,  to  the 
protection  of  the  colonies  as  they  were  '  unjustly  molested 
in  their  possessions  and  laudable  endeavors,  by  certain 
unreasonable  and  turbulent  spirits  from  Providence  colo- 
ny,' 'to  the  great  scandal  of  justice  and  government,  and 
the  eminent  discouragement  of  that  hopeful  plantation.' 

In  consequence  of  the  royal  pleasure  thus  signified,  the 
Commissioners  addressed  a  communication  to  the  govern- 
ment of  Rhode  Island. 


Memoir  of  Plymouth  coLoNf .  177 

During  the  years  1665  and  1666,  Josias  Winslow  and 
Thomas  Souihvvorth  were  the  Commissioners  from  Ply- 
mouth. 

September  5,  1667,  the  Commissioners  again  met  at 
Hartford.  Thomas  Danforth  and  John  Leverett  repre-* 
sented  Massachusetts  ;  Thomas  Southworth  and  Thomas 
Hinckley  Plymouth. 

New  Haven,  by  a  royal  charter,  was  now  annexed  to 
Connecticut,  and  the  two  colonies  were  amalgamated  and 
represented  by  William  Leete  and  Samue  1  Willis. 

Governor  Leete  was  chosen  president. 

Plymouth  as  early  as  August,  1665,  had  protested  against 
the  continuance  of  the  confederation  under  the  subsisting 
articles,  in  the  ft)llowing  communication  made  to  the 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts. 

'  From  the  last  commission,  (say  they,)  something  was 
commended  to  the  several  General  Courts  of  the  United 
Colonies  for  the  continuance  of  the  confederation  with 
three  colonies,  viz.  Massachusetts,  Plymouth,  and  Con- 
necticut ;  we  have  not  as  yet  heard  from  any  of  the 
General  Courts  ;  but  our  last  General  Court  taking  the 
premises  into  consideration,  requested  me  to  acquaint  you 
with  our  present  apprehensions,  which  is,  that  we  find  not 
our  reason  seated  in  sufficient  light  to  continue  confedera- 
tion with  three  colonies  as  we  did  with  four. 

'  I.  Because  it  is  against  an  express  article  that  no  two 
of  the  said  colonies  shall  become  one,  (and  we  apprehend 
grounded  upon  good  reason,)  except  with  consent  of  the 
rest,  which  we  do  not,  nor  yourselves  for  ought  we  know, 
nor  New  Haven,  except  constrained. 

'  2.  That  matters  of  peace  and  war  and  other  concerns 
of  the  colonies  hath  been  looked  upon  as  matters  of  such 
concernment  as  required  at  least  six  of  the  ablest,  dis- 
creetest,   and  most  experienced    gentlemen  of  the   four 

PART    II.  23 


178  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

colonies  to  determine,  and  we  are  apt  to  judge  that  the 
concerns  of  the  colonies  are  of  as  great  weight  a-  then  ; 
and  we  are  very  apprehensive  the  colonies  then  were 
as  well  furnished  with  able  persons  fit  for  such  work  as 
now  ;    to  say  no  more,  we  know  how  it  is  with  ourselves. 

'  3.  How  the  determination  of  the  Commissioners  halh 
been  attended  by  some,  when  there  were  at  least  six  to 
determine,  and  mostly  eight  concurring  ;  such  as  have 
been  on  the  commission  may  easily  remember,  which  in- 
deed hath  been  matter  of  trouble  to  us,  as  unto  others,  but 
we  know  not  how  to  remedy  it,  and  there  is  little  reason 
to  conceive  it  will  be  amended  by  the  determination  of 
four,  if  not  liked  by  that  colony  whom  it  may  concern. 

'  4.  To  enter  into  a  confederation  with  any  where  it 
cannot  be  rested  upon  that  the  matters  agreed  on  shall  in 
all  points  exactly  be  attended,  after  so  much  travel,  ex- 
pense of  time,  and  not  a  little  charge,  we  apprehend  it 
neither  necessary  nor  convenient ;  these  with  several 
other  that  we  might  mention  if  need  were,  doth  so  obstruct 
our  way,  that  we  are  not  willing  to  enter  into  such  a  con- 
federation with  three  colonies  as  we  did  formerly  with 
four.  The  truth  is,  we  are  the  meanest  and  weakest, 
least  able  to  stand  of  ourselves,  and  little  able  to  contri- 
bute any  helpfulness  to  others,  and  we  know  it,  though 
none  should  tell  us  of  it,  yet  through  God's  goodness  we 
have  not  hitherto  given  you  much  trouble,  and  hope  it 
shall  be  our  study  and  endeavors  as  we  are  able  to  be 
serviceable  to  our  countrymen,  brethren,  and  fellow-sub- 
jects, and  doubt  not  to  fi.id  the  like  from  yourselves  if 
need  be  ;  not  willing  to  give  you  any  further  trouble  at 
present,  commending  you  and  all  your  weighty  occasions 
unto  the  blessing  of  the  Almighty,  we  crave  leave  to  re- 
main, Gentlemen, 

•  Yours  to  love  and  serve  you, 

'  Plymouth,  21st  of  June,  1665.  Thomas  Pbence.' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  179 

The  Commissioners  demanded  an  exhibition  of  the  com- 
pact by  which  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  were  united, 
but  it  was  not  produced.  Neither  was  the  concurrence 
of  the  General  Court  of  Connecticut  for  the  continuance 
of  the  confederation,  and  triennial  meetings  of  the  Com- 
missioners, as  proposed  by  Massachusetts. 

The  Commissioners  declared  that  the  articles  of  con- 
federation were  so  weakened  and  infringed  as  to  require 
a  '  reestablishment  of  the  confederation  betwixt  these 
colonies,  who  are  here  willing  exiles  from  the  place  of 
our  fathers'  sepulchres,  for  tl/e  enjoyment  of  the  same 
spiritual  mercies,  of  the  same  nation,  and  all  of  us  sub- 
jects of  the  same  prince,  knowing  well  that  the  violation 
thereof  will  be  highly  provoking  to  the  most  high  God, 
who  is  the  witness,  and  will  be  the  judge  of  and  between 
the  parties  concerned,  and  it  is  also  of  no  less  tendency 
than  the  breaking  down  of  that  wall  which  under  God 
hath  hitherto  been,  and  still  is  the  means  of  our  own 
safety,  and  preservation  of  his  majesty's  dominions  here 
against  domestic  and  foreign  enemies.' 

The  Commissioners  then  set  forth  the  grievances  be- 
sides those  which  were  included  in  the  Plymouth  memo- 
rial. 

'  1.  The  several  acts  relating  to  the  differences  between 
Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  with  respect  to  the  Pequot 
country. 

'  2.  The  acts  of  the  Commissioners,  by  which  the  subject 
was  partly  referred  to  New  Haven  ;  the  junction  of  New 
Haven  and  Connecticut,  which  the  Commissioners  cannot 
as  yet  approbate,  being  ignorant  of  the  conditions  of 
their  union. 

'  3.  The  acts  of  the  Commissioners  respecting  the  pro- 
visions for  the  Pequot  Indians. 


]  80  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

The  Commissioners,  after  alluding  with  regret  to  some 
proceedings  of  Connecticut,  submit  their  propositions  for 
altering  ihe  articles  of  confederation,  which  were 

*  1.  To  take  from  the  Commissioners  the  power  of 
making  offensive  war,  unless  instructed  by  the  several 
General  Courts,  and  vesting  that  power  in  the  General 
Courts. 

'2.  In  confidence  of  our  compliance  by  our  beloved 
brethren  and  confederates  of  Connecticut  according  to 
the  loving  intimations  given  them,  we  do  again  propound 
the  proviso  made  by  the  Commissioners  at  Hartford,  Sep- 
tember, 1664,  for  the  resettlement  of  the  articles  of  con- 
federation. 

'3.  Triennial  instead  of  annual  meetings  proposed,  but 
only  once  in  fifteen  years  at  Plymouth. 

'4.  A  synod  was  prepared  for  the  settlement  of  ques- 
tions arising  in  the  churches  on  matters  of  faith  and  order, 
consisting  of  '  messengers  from  the  churches  called  in- 
differently out  of  all  the  United  Colonies  to  meet  at  or 
near  Boston. 

*  And  whereas,  the  scripture  doth  abundantly  testify 
against  the  neglect  of  those  things  that  appertain  to  the 
house  of  God  ;  we  do  commend  to  the  consideration  of  the 
several  jurisdictions  that  some  special  provision  be  made 
for  the  more  comfortable  and  settled  maintenance  of  an 
able  ministry  in  every  plantation  ;  and  where  any  shall 
presume  to  slight  or  oppose  the  same  by  turbulent  or 
schismatical  practices,  that  a  condign  testimony  be  borne 
against  them. 

'  5.  A  further  provision  respecting  vagabonds  or  wan- 
dering persons,  was  recommended.' 

The  Commissioners  from  Connecticut  disclaimed  any 
dislike  to  a  tripartite  confederation,  or  a  triennial  meeting 
of  the  Commissioners. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  181 

With  respect  to  Southertown  they  claimed  it  as  included 
in  their  charter. 

The  difficulties  with  the  Pequot  Indians  were  settled. 

New  Haven  and  Connecticut,  they  say,  were  constituted 
as  one  government  by  a  royal  patent,  and  therefore  it  was 
no  proper  cause  of  complaint  on  the  part  of  the  Commis- 
sioners, and  conclude,  '  we  shall  forbear  to  mention  any- 
thing of  our  dissatisfaction  with  our  loving  confederates 
of  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth,  whose  letters  and  instruc- 
tions seems  to  us  to  have  too  much  tendency  to  weaken 
that  solemn  confederation;  being  resolved  with  all  cor- 
dialness  to  comply  with  you  in  strengthening  the  same  ; 
and  to  join  with  you  in  commending  to  the  prudent  con- 
sideration of  the  several  General  Courts  what  may  be 
adviseable  for  the  best  security  of  our  religious  rights  and 
civil  enjoyments  as  becomes  brethren,  and  brethren  in  so 
remote  a  corner  of  this  wilderness. 

'  William  Leete. 
'  September  12,  1667.  '  Samuel  Willis.' 

In  1668  and  1G69,  Josias  Winslow  was  chosen  Com- 
missioner by  the  General  Court  of  Plymouth.  In  1668, 
Thomas  Southworth.     In  1669,  Constant  Southworth. 

On  the  first  of  June,  1670,  articles  of  agreement  were 
recommended  to  the  several  General  Courts  of  Massachu' 
setts,  Plymouth,  and  Connecticut;  by  Richard  Belling- 
ham,  governor,  Thomas  Danforth  and  John  Leverett  on 
the  part  of  Massachusetts  ;  Josias  Winslow  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  New  Plymouth  ;  Samuel  Willis  and  John 
Talcott  for  and  by  order  of  the  General  Court  of  Con- 
necticut. 

Thomas  Prence  and  Josias  Winslow  were  annually 
chosen  Commissioners  by  the  General  Court  of  Plymouth 
in  1770,  1771,  and  1772. 


2  82  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

On   the   fifth  of  September,    1672,   the   new  articles  of 
confederation  were  finally  ratified. 

ARTICLES  OF  CONFEDERATION  OF  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COLOMES. 

Articles  of  Confederaion  between  the  Plantations  under  the  government  of 
the  Massachusetts,  the  Plantations  under  the  government  of  New  Plymouth, 
and  the  Plantations  under  the  government  of  Connecticut. 

*  Whereas  we  all  came  into  these  parts  of  America 
with  one  and  the  same  end  and  aim,  viz.  to  advance  the 
kingdom  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  enjoy  the  lib- 
erties of  the  gospel  in  purity  and  peace,  and  whereas  in 
our  settling,  by  a  wise  providence  of  God,  we  are  further 
dispersed  upon  the  sea-coasts  and  rivers  than  was  at  first 
intended,  so  that  we  cannot  according  to  our  desire  with 
conveniency  communicate  in  one  government  and  juris- 
diction, and  whereas  we  are  compassed  with  people  of 
several  nations  and  strange  languages,  which  hereafter 
may  prove  injurious  to  us  and  our  posterity,  and  foras- 
much as  the  natives  have  formerly  committed  sundry  inso- 
lencies  and  outrages  upon  several  plantations  of  the 
English,  and  have  several  times  combined  themselves 
against  us,  and  seeing,  by  reason  of  our  distance  from 
England,  our  dear  native  country,  we  are  hindered  both 
from  that  humble  way  of  seeking  a-dvice  and  reaping 
those  comfortable  fruits  of  protection  which  we  might 
otherwise  well  expect,  we  therefore  account  it  our  duty 
as  well  as  safety  to  enter  into  a  confederation  for  mutual 
help  and  succour  in  all  our  future  concernments,  that  as 
in  nation  and  religion,  so  in  other  respects  we  be  and 
continue  one,  according  to  the  terms  and  true  meaning  of 
the  ensuing  articles  :  — 

'  1.  Wherefore  it  is  agreed  and  concluded  by  and  be- 
tween the  parties  or  jurisdictions  abovenamed,  and  they 
do  jointly  and  severally  by  these  presents  agree  and  con- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  183 

elude,  that  they  all  be  and  henceforth  to  be  called  by  the 
name  of  the  United  Colonies  of  New  England. 

'  2.  The  said  United  Colonies,  for  themselves  and  their 
posterity,  do  jointly  and  severally  hereby  enter  into  a 
firm  and  perpetual  league  of  friendship  and  amity,  mutual 
advice  and  succour  upon  all  just  occasions,  both  for  pre- 
serving and  propagating  the  truth  and  liberties  of  the 
gospel,  and  for  their  own  mutual  safety  and  welfare,  pro- 
vided notwithstanding  that  the  power  of  determination  of 
an  offensive  war  properly  so  called,  so  as  to  engage  the 
colonies  therein,  shall  be  in  the  several  General  Courts  of 
the  aforementioned  confederates. 

'  3.  It  is  agreed  that  the  plantations  which  at  present 
are  or  hereafter  shall  be  settled  within  the  limits  of  the 
Massachusetts,  shall  be  forever  under  the  government  of 
the  Massachusetts,  and  have  peculiar  jurisdiction  amongst 
their.selves  as  an  entire  body,  and  that  Plymouth  and 
Connecticut  each  of  them  in  all  respects  have  the  like 
peculiar  jurisdiction  and  government  within  their  limits, 
according  to  their  respective  letters  patent  from  his 
majesty,  provided  that  no  other  jurisdiction  shall  here- 
after be  taken  in  as  a  distinct  head  or  member  of  this 
confederation,  nor  shall  any  other  plantation  or  jurisdiction 
in  present  being,  and  not  already  in  combination  or  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  any  of  these  confederates,  join  in  one 
jurisdiction  without  the  consent  of  the  several  General 
Courts  of  the  abovenamed  confederates. 

'4.  It  is  also  agreed,  that  for  the  managing  and  concluding 
of  all  affairs  proper  to  and  concerning  the  whole  confed- 
eration not  excepted  against  in  these  articles,  two  Com- 
missioners shall  be  chosen  by  and  out  of  each  of  these 
three  jurisdictions,  namely,  two  for  the  Massachusetts, 
two  for  Plymouth,  and  two  for  Connecticut,  being  all  in 
church  fellowship  with  us,  who  shall  bring  full  power 


184  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

from  their  General  Courts  respectively,  to  hear  and  exani-' 
inp,  and  weigh,  and  determine  the  same  ;  but  if  these  six 
Commissioners  when  met  shall  not  all  agree,  yet  it  is  con- 
cluded that  any  five  of  the  six  agreeing,  shall  have  power 
to  settle  and  determine  the  case  in  controversy  ;  but  if  five 
do  not  agree,  that  then  such  propositions  with  their  reasons 
so  far  as  they  have  been  debated,  be  sent  and  referred  to 
the  several  General  Courts,  and  if  by  all  the  said  Courts 
there  be  a  concurrence  in  the  matter  so  referred,  then  to 
be  accordingly  prosecuted  by  all  the  confederates,  and  aU 
their  members. 

'  5.  It  is  further  agreed,  that  the  Commissioners  for  the 
United  Colonies  shall  meet  but  once  in  three  years,  except 
in  cases  extraordinary,  which  meeting  shall  ever  be  on  the 
first  Thursday  in  September,  and  that  the  next  meeting 
after  the  date  of  these  presents  shall  be  at  Plymouth, 
which  shall  be  accounted  the  first  meeting,  the  second  at 
Boston,  the  third  at  Hartford,  the  fourth  at  Boston,  the 
fifth  at  Hartford,  and  so  the  meeting  will  be  but  once  in 
fifteen  years  at  Plymouth,  and  double  so  often  in  the 
other  colonies,  if  in  the  meantime  some  middle  place  be 
not  found  out  and  agreed  on,  which  may  be  commodious 
for  all. 

'  6.  It  is  further  agreed,  that  at  each  meeting  of  these 
six  Commissioners,  whether  ordinary  or  extraordinary, 
they  may  choose  their  president  out  of  themselves,  whose 
office  and  work  shall  be  to  take  care  and  direct  for  order 
and  comely  carrying  of  all  proceedings  in  the  present 
meeting,  but  he  shall  be  invested  with  no  such  power  by 
which  he  may  hinder  the  proposing  or  progress  of  any 
business,  or  any  way  cast  the  scales  otherwise  than  in  the 
present  articles  is  agreed. 

*  7.  It  is  also  agreed,  that  the  Commissioners  for  this 
confederation  hereafter  at  their  meetings,  whether  ordinary 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  185 

or  extraordinary,  as  they  may  have  commission  or  oppor- 
tunity, may  consult  of  and  propose  to  the  several  General 
Courts  to  be  by  them  allowed  and  established,  such  orders, 
in  general  cases  of  a  civil  nature,  wherein  all  the  planta- 
tions are  interested,  for  preserving  peace  amongst  them- 
selves, and  preventing  as  much  as  may  be,  all  occasions 
of  war  or  differences  with  others,  as  about  the  free  and 
speedy  passage  of  justice  in  each  jurisdiction  to  all  the 
confederates  equally  as  to  their  own,  receiving  those  that 
remove  from  one  plantation  to  another  ;  how  all  the  juris- 
dictions may  carry  towards  the  Indians,  that  they  neither 
grow  insolent  nor  be  injured  without  due  satisfaction,  lest 
war  break  in  upon  the  confederates  through  such  miscar- 
riages ;  it  is  also  agreed,  that  if  any  servant  run  away 
from  his  master  into  any  other  of  these  confederated 
jurisdictions,  that  in  such  case,  upon  the  certificate  of  one 
magistrate  in  the  jurisdiction  out  of  which  the  said  servant 
fled,  or  upon  other  due  proof,  the  said  servant  shall  be 
delivered  either  to  his  master  or  any  other  that  pursues 
and  brings  such  certificate  or  proof;  and  that  upon  the 
escape  of  any  prisoner  whatsoever,  or  fugitive  for  any 
criminal  cause,  whether  breaking  prison  or  getting  from 
the  officer,  or  otherwise  escaping,  upon  the  certificate  of 
the  jurisdiction  out  of  which  the  escape  is  made,  that 
he  was  a  prisoner,  or  such  an  oflfender  at  the  time  of 
the  escape,  the  magistrates  or  some  of  them  for  that 
jurisdiction  where  for  the  present  the  said  prisoner  or 
fugitive  abideth,  shall  forthwith  grant  such  a  warrant  as 
the  case  will  bear  for  the  apprehending  any  such  person, 
and  the  delivering  him  or  her  into  the  hand  of  the  pursuer, 
and  if  help  be  required  it  shall  be  granted,  he  paying  the 
charge  thereof. 

'  8.  It  is  further  agreed,  that  for  the  disposing  of  the 
Indian  stock  for  the  future,  the  choice  of  the  Commission- 

PART  II.  24 


186  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

ers  of  the  several  colonies  being  annually  as  formerly,  the 
Commissioners  of  the  Massachusetti  with  such  others  as 
shall  be  present,  or  any  three  of  the  Commissioners, 
meeting  yearly  at  Boston,  or  elsewhere  as  they  shall  agree, 
and  at  the  usual  time,  they  may  do  any  act  for  the  man- 
aging and  ordering  of  that  affair  as  though  all  the  Com- 
missioners were  present,  and  what  they  shall  do  herein 
they  shall  keep  a  true  record  thereof,  and  transmit  the 
account  of  the  same  from  time  to  time,  to  the  triennial 
meeting  of  the  Commissioners. 

'  9.  It  is  agreed  also  by  the  confederates,  that  the 
charge  of  all  just  wars,  whether  offensive  or  defensive, 
upon  what  part  or  member  of  this  confederation  soever 
they  fall,  shall  both  in  men,  provisions,  and  all  other  dis- 
bursements, be  borne  by  all  the  parts  of  the  confederation 
in  different  proportions,  according  to  their  different  abili- 
ties, namely,  that  the  rule  for  proportioning  men,  and 
raising  of  monies  for  the  defraying  of  such  charges  as 
may  from  time  to  time  arise  upon  any  war,  defensive  or 
offensive,  begun  and  carried  on  according  to  the  articles 
of  confederation,  shall  be  as  follows  :  the  Massachusetts 
one  hundred,  Plymouth  thirty,  Connecticut  sixty;  and 
this  rule  to  continue  for  fifteen  years  next  coming  after 
the  beginning  of  the  meeting  of  the  Commissioners  to  be 
held  at  Plymouth  in  September  next;  and  then  if  any  one 
or  more  of  the  confederates  shall  apprehend  the  abovesaid 
proportion  to  be  unequal,  that  then  matters  shall  be  again 
considered  by  the  Commissioners,  and  what  they  shall 
agree  upon  shall  be  presented  to  the  several  General 
Courts  for  their  acceptance  and  confirmation,  each  juris- 
diction or  plantation  being  left  to  their  own  just  course 
and  custom  of  rating  themselves  and  people,  and  that 
according  to  the  different  charge  of  each  jurisdiction  and 
plantation,  the  whole   advantage  of  the  war,  (if  it  please 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  187 

God  SO  to  bless  their  endeavors,)  whether  it  be  in  lands, 
goods,  or  persons,  shall  be  proportionably  divided  amongst 
the  said  confederates. 

'  10.  It  is  further  agreed,  that  if  any  of  these  juris- 
dictions, or  any  plantation  under  them,  be  invaded  by  any 
enemy  whomsoever,  upon  any  notice  or  request  of  any 
three  magistrates  of  that  jurisdiction  so  invaded,  the  rest 
of  the  confederates  without  any  further  meeting  or  expos- 
tulation, shall  forthwith  send  aid  to  the  confederate  in 
danger,  but  in  different  proportions,  namely,  the  Massa- 
chusetts one  hundred  men  sufficiently  armed  and  provided 
for  such  service  and  expedition,  Plymouth  thirty  men  so 
armed  and  provided,  and  Connecticut  sixty  men  so  armed 
and  provided,  or  any  less  number  if  less  be  required, 
according  to  this  proportion  ;  but  if  such  confederate  in 
danger  may  be  supplied  by  their  next  confederate,  not 
exceeding  the  numbers  hereby  agreed,  they  may  crave 
help  there,  and  seek  no  further  for  the  present,  the  charge 
to  be  borne  by  the  several  colonies,  according  to  the  pro- 
portions abovesaid,  and  at  their  return  to  be  victualled 
and  supplied  with  powder  and  shot,  if  there  be  any  need 
for  their  journey,  by  that  jurisdiction  that  employed  or 
sent  for  them  ;  but  in  any  such  case  of  sending  men  for 
present  aid,  whether  before  or  after  such  order  or  altera- 
tion, it  is  agreed  that  at  the  meeting  of  the  Commissioners 
for  this  confederation,  the  cause  of  such  war  or  invasion 
be  duly  considered,  and  if  it  appear  that  the  fault  lay  in 
the  parties  so  invaded,  that  then  that  jurisdiction  or  plan- 
tation make  just  satisfaction  both  to  the  invaders  whom 
they  have  injured,  and  bear  all  the  charges  of  the  war 
themselves,  without  requiring  any  allowance  from  the  rest 
of  the  confederates  towards  the  same. 

'  11.  And  for  that  the  justest  war  may  be  of  dangerous 
•consequence  especially  to  the  smaller  plantations  in  these 


188  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

United  Colonies,  it  is  agreed,  that  neither  the  Massachu- 
setts, Plymouth,  nor  Connecticut,  nor  any  of  the  members 
of  any  of  them  shall  at  any  time  hereafter  begin,  under- 
take, or  engage  themselves,  or  this  confederation  in  any 
war  whatsoever,  (sudden  exigencies  with  the  necessary 
consequences  thereof  excepted,  which  are  also  to  be  mod- 
erated as  much  as  the  case  will  permit,)  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  several  General  Courts  of  the  United  Colonies. 
'  12.  It  is  also  agreed,  that  in  case  of  any  sudden  exi- 
gencies, or  other  weighty  occasions  requiring  the  meeting 
of  the  Commissioners  before  the  ordinary  time,  the  gov- 
ernor or  any  three  magistrates  of  any  of  the  confederate 
jurisdictions  may  summon  a  meeting  of  the  Commission- 
ers, briefly  signifying  the  occasion  thereof,  and  the  time 
and  place  of  the  meeting,  which  shall  be  accordingly 
attended  by  the  Commissioners  of  all  the  confederate 
jurisdictions,  and  when  met  they  may  adjourn  to  any  other 
time  or  place  as  they  shall  see  meet. 

'13.  It  is  also  agreed  for  settling  of  vagabonds  and 
wandering  persons  removing  from  one  colony  to  another, 
to  the  dissatisfaction  and  burden  of  the  places  where  they 
come,  as  daily  experience  sheweth  us ;  for  the  future  it  is 
ordered,  that  where  any  person  or  persons  shall  be  found 
in  any  jurisdiction  to  have  had  their  abode  for  three 
months,  and  not  warned  out  by  the  authority  of  the  place, 
and  in  case  of  the  neglect  of  any  person  so  warned  as 
abovesaid  to  depart,  if  he  be  not  by  the  first  op{)ortunity 
that  the  season  will  permit,  sent  away  from  constable  to 
constable,  to  the  end  that  he  may  be  returned  to  the  place 
of  his  former  abode,  every  such  person  or  persons  shall  be 
accounted  an  inhabitant  where  they  are  so  found,  and  by 
them  governed  and  provided  for,  as  their  condition  may 
require,  and  in  all  such  cases  the  charge  of  the  constables 
to  be  borne  by  the  treasurer  where  the  said  constables  do  ' 
dwell. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  189 

'  14.  It  is  agreed,  that  if  any  of  the  confederates  shall 
hereafter  break  any  of  these  present  articles,  or  be  in  any 
other  way  injurious  to  any  of  the  confederate  jurisdictions, 
such  breach  of  agreement  or  injury  shall  be  duly  consid- 
ered, and  ordered  by  the  Commissioners  for  the  other  juris- 
dictions, that  both  peace  and  this  present  confederation 
may  be  preserved  inviolate. 

'  15.  Whereas,  in  the  former  articles  agreed  upon,  May 
the  29th,  1643,  for  the  United  Colonies  abovenamed,  New 
Haven  is  therein  mentioned,  and  was  owned  as  a  distinct 
confederate,  and  is  by  these  included  and  concluded  as 
one  with  Connecticut,  the  abovesaid  union  shall  be  always 
interpreted  as  by  their  own  concession,  and  not  otherwise. 

'  Now  whereas  for  many  years  past,  upon  divers  good 
considerations  there  was  a  confederation  agreed  upon  by 
the  ancient  English  colonies  under  his  majesty's  authority 
in  New  England  for  mutual  help,  support,  and  defence, 
as  also  for  the  better  maintaining  his  majesty's  interest 
agaipst  any  opposition  or  incursion  of  the  barbarous  na- 
tives and  others,  as  appeareth  by  articles  that  were  agreed 
upon  in  the  year  1643,  and  are  upon  record  to  be  seen, 
whereby  the  said  colonies  have  been  so  united  as  have 
proved  very  beneficial  to  all  his  majesty's  subjects  in  these 
parts  for  their  peace  and  security,  and  whereas  the  several 
General  Courts  of  the  said  colonies  have  seen  cause  to 
renew  the  said  confederation  with  some  necessary  altera- 
tion and  addition  to  the  said  articles,  as  is  more  fully 
expressed  in  the  articles  above  written,  and  also,  whereas 
the  General  Court  for  the  Massachusetts  colony,  by  their 
commission  dated  in  Boston,  in  August  30th,  1672,  have 
nominated  Thomas  Danforth,  Esq.,  and  Major  William 
Hawthorne,  Esq.,  their  Commissioners,  investing  them 
with  full  power  and  authority  to  sign,  ratify,  and  confirm, 
the  above  recited  articles  of  confederation,  and  in  like 


190  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

manner  the  General  Court  at  Plymouth,  June  the  5th,  1672, 
have  nominated  Thomas  Prence,  Esq.,  and  Major  Josias 
Winslow,  Esq.,  investing  them  with  like  power,  and  the  Gen- 
eral Court  of  Connecticut  colony  held  at  Hartford,  May  the 
9th,  and  June  the  26th,  1672,  have  in  like  manner  nomina- 
ted John  Winthorpe,  Esq.,  and  James  Richards,  Esq.,  in- 
vesting them  with  like  power,  the  abovesaid  Commissioners 
being  assembled  at  Plymouth,  September  the  5th,  1672, 
having  read  and  examined  these  above  written  articles,  do 
according  to  their  said  commissions,  and  by  virtue  thereof, 
clearly  and  absolutely  ratify  and  confirm  the  same,  for  the 
reestablishing  of  a  perpetual  confederation  between  the 
abovenamed  colonies,  as  was  the  declared  intentions  of 
the  former  articles ;  in  confirmation  whereof,  the  Com- 
missioners abovenamed,  by  the  authority  granted  unto 
them  from  their  several  General  Courts,  and  in  their 
name  and  stead  have  hereunto  subscribed  their  hands, 
in  Plymouth,  September  the  5th,  1672.' 

'  John  Winthorpe, 
'  James  Richards, 
'Thomas  Prence, 
'Josias  Winslow, 
'  Thomas  Danforth, 
'William  Hawthorne.' 

Alterations  it  would  seem  had  been  proposed  in  the 
different  General  Courts,  and  had  been  adopted  from  time 
to  time,  which  were  now  embodied  in  these  new  articles. 

The  principal  changes  were  those  which  required  the 
voices  of  five  of  the  six  Commissioners  instead  of  six  in 
eight,  the  junction  of  New  Haven  and  Connecticut  having 
reduced  the  number  to  six. 

Instead  of  an  annual  meeting  holden  alternately  at  New 
Haven,  Hartford,  and  Plymouth,  it  was  made  triennial,  and 
the  places  of  meeting  were  established  at  Boston,  Hart- 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY  IQI 

ford,  and   Plymouth,  but  was  to  be  holden  at  Plymouth 
only  once  in  fifteen  years. 

The  power  of  the  Commissioners  was  rendered  less 
positive  and  their  functions  seemed  to  be  restricted  to 
advice  and  recommendation  to  the  governments  of  the 
several  colonies. 

The  proportions  of  the  general  expenses,  military  force, 
&c,  were  changed  to  correspond  with  the  change  in  the 
relative  wealth  and  population  of  the  colonies,  Massachu- 
setts being  rated  at  one  hundred,  Connecticut  sixty,  and 
Plymouth  thirty ;  and  in  this  proportion  disbursements 
were  to  be  made  and  men  raised. 

No  war  was  to  be  undertaken  without  the  consent  of 
the  several  General  Courts  of  the  different  colonies. 

The  governor  or  any  three  of  the  magistrates  of  any 
colony  were  authorised  to  summon  a  meeting  of  the 
Commissioners  whenever  an  exigency  arose  requiring  such 
meeting. 

A  residence  of  three  months  gave  to  citizens  of  either 
colony  the  right  of  inhabitants. 

New  Haven  was  recognised  only  as  a  part  of  Con- 
necticut. 

These  alterations  materially  changed  the  character  of 
this  union.  The  power  formerly  enjoyed  by  the  Commis- 
sioners was  restricted,  and  from  being  in  many  instances 
executive,  it  became  merely  advisory. 

After  signing  these  articles,  the  Commissioners  pro- 
ceeded to  the  transaction  of  business.  The  meeting  was 
on  the  5th  of  September,  1672,  and  was  held  at  Plymouth. 

Thomas  Danforth  and  William  Hathorne  were  appointed 
from  Massachusetts ;  Thomas  Prence  and  Josias  Winslow 
from  Plymouth  ;  John  Winthrop  and  James  Richards  from 
Connecticut.     Thomas  Prence  was  chosen  president. 


192  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

But  little  business  was  transacted  at  this  meeting.  The 
next  was  holden  after  the  general  Indian  war  in  1675. 

Josias  Winslow  and  Thomas  Hinckley  were  chosen 
Commissioners  in  1673  and  1674,  by  the  General  Court  of 
Plymouth. 

It  was  the  practice  in  Plymouth  to  choose  the  Commis- 
sioners annually,  although  by  the  amended  articles  of  the 
confederation,  the  meetings  were  to  be  triennial.* 

*  From  1643  to  1672,  while  the  New  England  colonies  were  under  the  origi- 
nal articles,  the  following  Commissioners  were  chosen  from  Plymouth. 

Years, 
served  ...  2 

.       1 
12 

-  12 
2 

.      4 
1 

-  14 


First  chosen. 

1643 

Edward  Winslow 

1643 

William  Collier 

1644 

John  Browne 

1645 

Thomas  Prence 

1646 

Timothy  Hatherly 

1647 

William  E-radford 

1657 

James  Cudworth 

1658 

Josias  Winslow 

1659 

Thomas  Southworth 

1669 

Constant  Southworth 

193 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SETTLEMENT,  AND  LOCAL  AND  ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY  OF  THE 
TOWNS  OF  B.EHOBOTH,  KASTHAM,  BRIDGEWATER,  MIDDLEBOROUGH, 
DARTMOUTH,  AND  SWANSEA. — PROGRESS  OF  THE  OTHER  TOWNS  OF 
THE    COLONY. 

Between  the  years  1641  and  1675,  six  new  towns  were 
settled  and  incorporated,  namely,  Rehoboth  in  1645,  East- 
ham  in  1646,  Bridgewater  in  1656,  Middleborough  in 
1660,  Dartmouth  in  1664,  and  Swansea  in  1667. 

The  towns  already  established  were  making  considera- 
ble progress  in  wealth  and  population. 

REHOBOTH. 

The  ancient  Rehoboth  in  its  greatest  extent,  comprised 
the  present  towns  of  Seekonk,  (where  the  first  permanent 
settlement  commenced  around  the  Great  Plain,)  the  pre- 
sent towns  of  Rehoboth  and  Pawtucket,  the  town  of  Attle- 
borough,  first  called  the  north  purchase,  the  Gore,  (now 
Cumberland  in  Rhode  Island,)  and  that  part  of  Swansey 
which  was  called  Wannamoiset. 

The  first  settler  within  the  limits  of  the  ancient  town 
was  William  Blackstone,  who  was  also  the  first  settler  and 
ancient  proprietor  of  Shawmut,  since  Boston.  His  resi- 
dence was  on  the  river  which  now  perpetuates  his  name, 
above   Pawtucket,  at  a  place   afterwards    known    by  the 

PART  II.  25 


1§4  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONT. 

name  of  the  Attleborough  Gore,  (now  Cumberland  m 
Rhode  Island.) 

He  seated  himself  at  Boston  probably  about  the  year 
1625  or  1626,  and  his  right  by  occupancy  was  regarded 
by  the  settlers  who  came  out  with  Governor  Winlhrop,  as 
they  all    paid   him  a  consideration   for  its  relinquishment. 

To  use  his  own  words,  '  he  fled  from  England  to  escape 
the  tyranny  of  the  Lords  Bishops,'  and  in  1635,  he  aban- 
doned Boston  '  to  escape  the  tyranny  of  the  Lords  Breth- 
ren.' He  built  his  house  on  a  knoll  near  the  river  ;  he 
named  it  '  Study  Hall.'  This  house  he  surrounded  with 
a  park.  The  Indian  name  of  the  place  which  he  occupied 
was  Wawepoonseag.  In  June,  1673,  he  lost  his  wife,  and 
died  himself  iMay  26,  1675.  He  lived  in  New  England 
about  fifty  years. 

William  Blackstone  had  been  in  England  a  minister 
of  the  establisiied  church.  LTnwilling  '  to  endure  the 
tyranny  of  the  Lords  Bishops,'  he  abandoned  his  country 
at  the  commencement  of  the  arbitrary  proceedings  in 
ecclesiastical  affairs.  He  did  not  yield  himself,  however, 
to  the  dominion  of  that  fierce  spirit  by  which  most  of  the 
puritans  appear  to  have  been  influenced,  and  never  re- 
nounced his  episcopal  calling.  His  temper  was  impatient 
of  restraint,  and  restless  under  the  exercise  of  arbitrary 
power,  but  unlike  his  austere  brethren,  he  sought  neither 
controversy  nor  proselytes,  and  to  escape  the  approaching 
tempest,  retreated  to  the  shelter  of  a  wilderness.  His 
taste  for  solitude  was  singular  and  unconquerable.  Ply- 
mouth had  been  settled  when  he  reached  America,  but  he 
preferred  the  solitary  quietude  of  Shawmut  (Boston).  He 
built  his  cottage  by  the  side  of  a  fountain,  cultivated  his 
garden,  and  planted  his  orchard,  (the  first  in  New  Eng- 
land,) and  shunned  all  association  with  man.  When  his 
lonely  asyluntt  was  invaded  by  men  fierce   and  intolerant, 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  If  S 

he  made  no  complaints,  he  provoked  no  quarrels,  but 
quietly  sold  his  lands,  and  '  to  avoid  the  tyranny  of  the 
Lords  Brethren,'  settled  himself  a  second  time  in  a  wil- 
derness far  distant  from  any  English  settlement,  '  planted 
another  orchard,'  and  wandered  on  the  banks  of  his  placid 
stream,  devoted  to  horticulture,  contemplation,  and  books, 
a  lonely,  musing  man. 

It  is  easy  to  conceive  of  the  intense  and  ardent  passions 
which  drove  Daniel  Boon  and  the  pioneers  of  the  west 
from  the  haunts  of  men.  Bold,  enterprising,  and  un- 
lettered, like  the  savages  they  delighted  in  the  animated 
pleasures  of  the  chase,  and  only  felt  the  sense  of  inde- 
pendence when  denizens  of  the  forest.  After  warring  on 
beasts  of  prey,  they  turned  their  deadly  rifles  upon  their 
wild  and  ferocious  neighbors,  and  acquired  a  keener  relish 
for  life  by  putting  it  in  constant  hazard. —  Blackstone  like 
them  travelled  from  wilderness  to  wilderness,  but  he 
abandoned  society  to  seek  the  quiet  and  the  peace  which 
disgusted  them. 

In  his  death,  this  pilgrim  father  of  Boston  and  Reho- 
both,  was  singularly  happy.  It  happened  a  few  days 
previous  to  the  commencement  of  that  direful  war,  wiiich 
in  a  few  days  after  gave  his  house  and  his  books  to  the  - 
flames,  and  rendered  his  fair  and  cultivated  domain  a  scene 
of  desolation.* 


*  Blackstone's  conduct  was  marked  by  many  harmless  eccentricities;  he 
tamed  a  bull,  on  which  he  would  occasionally  ride  to  Providence.  He  was  also 
remarkable  for  his  love  of  children.  His  was  one  of  those  singular  minds 
which  preserved  its  simple  and  natural  tastes,  without  yielding  in  the  least  to 
the  artificial  influences  of  society, 

Mr  Blackstone  left  a  son  whose  name  was  John.  It  is  believed  that  he  settled 
somewhere  near  New  Haven. 

The  Plymouth  Court  adopted  the  following  order  for  the  relief  of  John  Ste- 
venson, the  son  of  Mr  Blackstone's  wife. 

'June  10th,  1676.  Whereas  the  Court  is  informed  that  one  whose  name  ii 
li<\\n  Ptevnsnrt.  «on  in-law  tfi  ATr  WMIiam  Rlarketoni^.  \Mc  dprpa««/t.  wa«  (torw 


196  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLOWy. 

Roger  Williams  and  his  companions,  driven  from  Salem, 
at  first  seated  themselves  at  Seekonk,  but  advised  by 
Governor  Winslow,  they  crossed  the  river  (as  has  been  al- 
ready related,)  and  founded  Providence. 

The  real  founder  of  the  town  of  Rehoboth  was  the 
Rev.  Samuel  Newman,  the  minister  of  Weymouth.  Mr 
Newman  came  to  America  in  163G,  and  settled  at  Dor- 
chester. In  1638  he  was  settled  as  the  pastor  of  Wey- 
mouth, where  he  remained  about  five  years. 

Dissatisfied  with  his  situation,  he  and  several  of  his 
society  and  some  from  Hingham,  came  to  a  determination 
to  remove,  and  a  place  called  Seekonk  was  fixed  on  for 
the  new  settlement ;  they  probably  were  induced  to  select 
this  spot  as  it  was  an  extensive  plain,  already  cleared  of 
forest  trees,  and  a  place  apparently  favorable  to  the  culti- 
vation of  the  Indian  corn. 

The  first  meeting  of  the  proprietors  appears  to  have 
been  holden  at  Weymou.th,  August  24,  1643. 

They  agreed  to  divide  their  new  plantation  into  sixty- 
five  shares.  A  provision  was  made  that  if  some  failed, 
the  number  of  the  shares  might  be  reduced  to  sixty.  It 
was  also  resolved  that   the  lands  should  be  planted  and 

off)  to  his  father  and  mother  in  their  lifetime,  without  whom  they  could  not 
well  have  subsisted  as  to  a  good  help  and  instrument  thereof,  and  he  is  now  left 
in  a  low  and  mean  condition,  and  never  was  in  any  measure  recompensed  for 
his  good  service  aforesaid,  and  if  (as  it  is  said  at  least,)  his  father-in-law  engaged 
to  his  mother  at  his  marriage  with  her,  that  he  should  be  considered  with  a 
competency  of  land  out  of  the  said  Blackstone's  land  then  lived  on,  which  hath 
never  yet  been  performed;  and  forasmuch  as  the  personal  estate  of  the  said 
William  Blackstone  is  so  small  and  inconsiderable,  that  he  the  said  Stevenson 
cannot  be  relieved  out  of  it ;  this  Court  therefore,  in  consideration  of  the  pre- 
mises, do  order  and  dispose  fifty  acres  of  land  unto  the  said  John  Stevenson,  out 
of  t)ie  lands  of  the  said  William  Blackstone,  and  five  acres  of  meadow  to  be 
laid  out  unto  him  by  Ensign  Henry  Smith,  and  Mr  Daniel  Smith,  and  Mr 
Nathaniel  Paine,  &c.' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  197 

fenced  previous  to  the  ensuing  20th  of  April,  and  that  all 
should  remove  together  with  their  families  in  one  year,  or 
should  forfeit  their  interest  in  the  lands  to  the  plantation, 
they  allowing  for  the  improvements  according  to  their 
discretion. 

October  10,  1643,  regulations  were  made  as  to  the 
planting  of  corn.  The  teacher  to  have  a  certain  propor- 
tion from  each  settler.  Servants  after  four  years  to  be 
inhabitants  and  entitled  to  the  privileges.  Richard  Wright 
was  employed  to  build  a  corn-mill. 

On  the  21st  of  April,  1644,  a  meeting  was  held  at  See- 
konk,  and  a  new  division  was  ordered. 

It  was  also  resolved  that  on  every  fortieth  day  a  meeting 
should  be  holden  by  all  the  inhabitants  '  for  the  considera- 
tion and  acting  such  necessary  affairs  as  concern  the  plan- 
tation.' 

At  another  meeting  it  was  ordered  '  that  nine  men  should 
be  chosen  to  order  the  prudential  affairs  of  the  plantations 
who  shall  have  power  to  dispose  of  the  lands  in  lots  of 
twelve,  eight,  or  six  acres,  as  in  their  discretion  they 
think  the  quality  or  the  estate  of  the  person  do  require.' 
This  was  applied  to  house  lots.  It  was  further  ordered, 
*  that  all  other  lots  be  divided  according  to  person  and 
estate.'  '  One  person  to  be  valued  £12  sterling  in  the 
divisons  of  lands,  and  that  no  person  should  sell  his  im- 
provements but  to  such  as  the  inhabitants  shall  accept 
of,'  and  that  the  meeting-house  should  stand  in  the  midst 
of  *the  town.' 

On  the  3d  of  September,  1644,  the  inhabitants  signed 
a  compact  in  the  following  words. 

'  This  combination  entered  into  by  the  general  consent 
of  all  the  inhabitants  after  general  notice  given  the  23d 
of  the  4th  month.' 


198  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

'  We  whose  names  are  underwritten,  being  by  the  pro- 
vidence of  God  inhabitants  of  Seakunk,  intending  there 
to  settle,  do  covenant  with  ourselves  one  to  another  to 
subject  our  *  (according   to   law   and    equity,)  to 

nine  persons,  any  five  of  the  nine  which  shall  be  chosen 
by  the  major  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  plantation, 
and  we  (torn  off,)  to  be  subject  to  all  wholesome 
(torn  off)  by  them,  and  to  assist  them  according  to  our 
ability  and  estate.  And  to  give  timely  notice  unto  them 
of  any  such  thing  as  in  our  conscience  may  prove  dan- 
gerous to  the  plantation,  and  this  combination  to  continue 
until  we  shall  subject  ourselves  jointly  to  some  other 
government.' 

This  '  combination'  was  signed  by  the  following  per- 
sons— 

Walter  Palmer,  Ephraim  Hunt, 

Edward  Smith,  Peter  Hunt, 

Edward  Bennett,  William  Smith, 

Robert  Titus,  John  Peren, 

Abraham  Martin,  Zachary  Rhoades, 

John  Mathewe8,  Job  Laine, 

Edward  Sale,  Alexander  Winchester, 

Ralph  Shepherd,  Henry  Smith, 

Samuel  Newman,  Stephen  Payne, 

William  Cheeseborough,  Ralph  Alin, 

Richard  Wright,  Thomas  Bliss, 

Robert  Martin,  George  Kendricke, 

Richard  Bowen,  John  Allen, 

Joseph  Torrey,  William  Sabin, 

James  Clark.  Thomas  Cooper 

« 

Of  these  signers,  Abraham  Martin,  Mr  Henry  Smith, 
Stephen  Payne,  and  Thomas  Cooper,  came  from  Hing- 
ham,  originally  from  Hingham  in  Norfolk,  England.  The 
others  were  probably  from  Weymouth.  Henry  Smith  came 
with  Governor  Winthrop  in  1630.       Walter  Palmer  and 

^  IlIejfiblK 


JiEMOlR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  199 

William  Cheeseborough  were  in  Massachusetts  in  1630. 
Palmer  was  constable  of  Charlestown  in  1636.  Sale  was 
a  freeman  of  Massachusetts  in  1637.  Payne  in  1639. 
Bliss  in  1642.     Cooper  in  1638. 

Edward  Smith  and  Joseph  Torrey  subsequently  were 
followers  of  Obadiah  Holmes,  became  Baptists,  and  went 
to  Newport.  Zacchary  Rhoades  also  became  a  Baptist, 
and  was  one  of  the  founders  of  Patuxet,  a  plantation  of 
Providence.  The  lands  were  laid  out  by  Mr  Oliver  of 
Boston  and  Joseph  Fisher,  and  an  order  was  passed  in 
May  1744,  that  such  as  neglected  to  pay  the  surveyor's 
fees  should  forfeit  their  lands. 

October  10th,  1044,  'at  a  general  meeting  of  the  town 
of  Seekonk  at  lawful  warning  given,  by  reason  of  many 
meetings  and  other  strong  causes  for  the  easing  of  the 
great  trouble,  and   for  the  *  and    the   deciding  of 

controversies  between  party  and  party,  as  well  as  for  the 
proposing  of  men's  levies  to  be  made  and  paid,  and  for 
the  well  ordering  of  the  town's  affairs  as  may  stand  with 
future  equity  according  to  our  former  combination,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  said  place  have  chosen  these  men  here 
named. 

Alexander  Winchester,  William  Smith, 

Richard  Wright,  Stephen  Payne, 

Henry  Smith,  Richard  Bowen, 

Edward  Smith,  Robert  Martin. 
Walter  Palmer, 

These  townsmen  met  on  the  26th  of  December,  1644, 
and  it  was  by  them  ordered,  '  that  the  recording  of  any 
man's  land  in  the  town  book  shall  be  to  him  and  his  heirs 
a  sufficient  assurance  forever.  On  the  same  day  it  was 
ordered   that  no  man's   lands  ke   recorded  till  he   be  an 

•  Ilkgibi*. 


200  MEMOIR   OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

inhabitant  amongst  us,  and  further  that  no  man*s  lands 
be  recorded  till  he  bring  to  the  town  clerk  a  note  for  his 
lands  butted  and  bounded.' 

The  plantation  hitherto  was  considered  independent  of 
any  jurisdiction.  It  does  not  appear  that  any  permission 
to  settle  here  was  sought  either  of  the  jurisdiction  of 
Plymouth  or  Massachusetts,  although  both  colonies  after- 
wards claimed  Seekonk ;  but  in  1645  it  was  received  by 
Plymouth  and  became  the  town  of  Rehoboth,  a  name 
derived  from  the  scriptures,  and  selected  by  Mr.  Newman. 

March  28,  1645,  the  allotments  were  ordered  to  be 
recorded.  The  names  of  Edward  Sale  and  Ephraim 
Hunt,  two  of  the  signers  of  the  combination,  do  not  ap- 
pear. The  others  are  the  signers,  with  the  following 
other  names. 

Mr Howard,  Mr  John  Browne, 

John  Holbrook,  Thomas  Holbrook,  senior, 

Matthew  Pratt,  Thomas  Hett, 

William  Carpenter,  Edward  Gilman, 

Samuel  Butterworth,  Thomas  Clifton, 

Edward  Patterson,  The  Widow  Walker, 

James  Browne,  Richard  Ingram, 

John  Sutton,  Robert  Fuller, 

Robert  Morris,  Thomas  Loring, 

Thomas  Willniartb,  John  Read, 

John  Fitch,  John  Miller, 

Edward  Hall,  John  Peck, 
Obadiah  Holmes, 

Of  one  name  nothing  can  be  discovered  except 
Thomas;  one  other  is  illegible.  Lots  were  also  assigned 
to  the  governor,  the  schoolmaster,  and  the  pastor.  Oba- 
diah Holmes  came  from  Salem,  originally  from  Preston, 
Lancashire,  England.  He  commenced  a  schism  in  Mr 
Newman's  congregation  and  ultimately  became  a  Baptist. 

Mr  John  Browne,  and  his  son  James  Browne,  came  into 
this  plantation  from  Taunton.    Edward  Gilman  came  from 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  201 

Hingham,  and  removed  to  New  Hampshire  ;  *  Thomas 
Hettf  came  also  from  Hingham,  and  John  Peck  and  John 
Sutton.  William  Carpenter  subsequently  became  a  Bap- 
tist, and  was  one  of  the  founders  of  Patuxet. 

April  9th,  1645,  the  following  seven  persons  were  chosen 
to  order  the  prudential  affairs  of  the  town  for  '  half  a 
year,'  viz. 

Mr  John  Browne,  senior,  William  Cheeseborough, 

Richard  Wright,  Mr  Alexander  Winchester, 

Stephen  Payne,  Edward  Smith, 
Walter  Palmer. 

On  the  same  day  lots  were  drawn  for  lands  on  the  Great 
Plain.     The  following  new  names  appear. 

James  Walker,  Nicholas  Ide, 

Richard  Bullock,*  Mr  Joseph  Peck, 

Robert  Abel,+  Isaac  Martin. 

Mr  Joseph  Peck  came  from  Hingham,  originally  from 
Hingham,  (England.) 

Mr  John  Browne  became  a  great  proprietor  of  Wanna- 
moiset,  included  in  the  ancient  Swansey  by  virtue  of  this 
agreement.  It  would  seem  to  have  been  a  place  where 
Indians  resided,  and  from  which  they  were  hired  to 
remove. 

'  The  20th  of  the  10th  month,  (October)  1645. 

'  Whereas  there  was  a  second  agreement  made  with  the 
Indians  for  their  full  consent  in  their  removing  from  Wan- 
namoiset,  and  the  value  of  fifteen  pounds  sterling  to  be 
paid  them,  or  thereabouts  in  several  commodities.     It  was 

*  A  freeman  of  Massachusetts  in  1638. 
t  A  freeman  in  1642.      Thomas  Loring  in  1636.      John  Browne  in  1634. 
James  Browne  in  1636. 

t  A  freeman  of  Massachusetts  in  1645. 
II  Came  with  Governor  Winthrop  1630. 
PART    II.  26 


202  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

in  several  town  meetings  expounded  that  the  aim,  * 
would  pay  that  particular  *  they  hold  there,  that 
land  with  twelve  acres  lying  at  Watchemoket  cove,  and 
for  much  more  land  at  Wanamoyset  as  sold,  be  thought 
worth  the  payment  of  the  same  after  Mr  Richard  Bowen, 
Robert  Martin,  and  Stephen  Payne,  by  the  appointment  of 
the  rest  of  the  townsmen,  viewed  and  laid  out  that  neck  of 
land  called  and  known  by  the  name  of  Wanamoyset  neck 
from  the  salt  water  where  the  Indians  had  formerly  made  a 
hedge,  ranging  unto  the  north  end  of  the  Indian  field, 
and  the  bounds  about  the  said  Indian  field  unto  the  salt 
water.  Whereupon,  this  20th  of  the  10th  month,  1645, 
Mr  John  Browne,  in  a  town-meeting,  did  promise  and  un- 
dertake to  pay  the  *  in  consideration  that  said  lands 
to  belong  to  him  and  his  heirs  or  assigns  forever ;  and 
further  it  was  agreed  in  the  said  town-meeting  that  in  all 
the  divisions  of  lands  that  was  *  hereafter  sold, 
*  after  the  rate  of  three  hundred  pounds  estate, 
should  be  called  forty  for  him ;  adjoining  to  the  aforesaid 
lands  on  the  farther  side  from  the  town,  or  towards  the 
salt-marsh,  or  as  may  be  both  least  prejudicial  to  the  town 
or  to  himself,  saving  that  fortyfour  acres  upon  Watche- 
moyket  already  allotted  him  to  be  part  of  the  same,  and 
he  doth  farther  agree  to  accept  of  ten  acres  of  salt-marsh 
where  he  mowed  this  year,  formerly  allotted  to  him  in  full 
of  the  meadow  land  belonging  to  the  town,  and  doth 
farther  promise  that  when  the  rest  of  the  townsmen  shall 
fence  their  lands  already  allotted  on  Watchemoquit  neck, 
he  to  fence  his  part  with  them,  and  to  bear  his  part  in 
town  charges,  after  the  aforesaid  sura  of  £300  estate,  &c.'' 
26th  of  10th  mo.  1645.  At  a  meeting  of  the  towns- 
men it  was  voted  that  the  house  lot,  &c.  laid  out  to  John 

*  Illegible. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  203 

Button,  '  he  not  having  come  to  live  amongst  us,  nor  ful- 
filled his  written  agreement  bearing  date  the  24th  of  the 
8th  month,  1G43,'  be  granted  to  William  Devell. 

Sth  of  the  Sth  mo.  1646.  The  town  permitted  John 
Doggett*  to  take  the  lands  laid  out  to  John  Matthewes. 

On  the  same  day  a  rate  was  ordered  '  to  get  the  town  out 
of  debt,  and  also  a  rate  so  much  as  shall  build  a  meeting- 
house.' 

18th  of  the  12th  mo.  Another  division  of  meadow 
lands  was  made.     The  following  new  names  appear  — 

Robert  Sharp,  Widow  Bennet,  (probably  the 

Robert  Wheaton,  widow  of  Edward  Bennet. 

Ademia  Morris,  ,  And  two  others,  (names  illegible.) 

January  7th,  1647.  The  town  permitted  John  Lashell  to 
purchase  the  lands  of  William  Devill. 

Feb.  20th.  George  Wright's  lands  were  sold  by  per- 
mission of  the  town  to  John  Doggett. 

13th  of  11th  mo.  1647,  Ademia  Morris,  executor  of 
Robert  Morris,  sold  to  Nicholas  Ide  his  home  lot. 

28th  of  4th  mo.  1647.  John  Titus  was  permitted  to 
take  the  lands  of  Matthew  Pratt ;  John  Woodcock  those 
of  Edward  Patterson. 

26th,  3d  mo.  1647.  Mr  Browne,  Mr  Pecke,  Stephen 
Paine,  Mr  Winchester,  Richard  Bowen,  William  Carpen- 
ter, and  Edward  Smith,  were  chosen  townsmen. 

The  other  townsmen  during  the  period  between  1644 
and  1675,  exclusive  of  those  already  mentioned  were 
Thomas  Cooper,  Robert  Titus,  John  Read,  senior,  Peter 
Hunt,  John  Allen,  John  Peram,  William  Sabin,  Anthony 
Perry,  Nicholas  Peck,  Philip  Walker,  and  Daniel  Smith. 

nth  of  the  1st  mo.  1648.  Mr  Peck  and  Stephen 
Paine  were  chosen  to  assist  Mr  Browne  in  matters  contro- 
verted at  the  Court. 

•*  Came  wiili  Governor  Winthrop,  1630.      ' 


204  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

It  was  voted  to  levy  a  rate  to  finish  the  meeting-house. 

18th  July.  The  town  gave  to  Roger  Amidowne  a  house 
lot  and  other  lands. 

July  12th,  1649.  Mr  Browne  and  Stephen  Paine  were 
chosen  to  make  diligent  search  to  find  out  the  most  con- 
venient way  between  Rehoboth  and  Dedham. 

1650,  10th  mo.  5.  It  was  voted  that  a  convenient  way 
four  rods  wide,  should  be  made  by  Edward  Smith  for  the 
town's  use,  '  or  any  that  shall  have  occasion  to  pass  from 
town  to  Providence,  or  to  Mr  Blackstone's.' 

1651,  15,  1st  mo.  '  It  was  agreed  that  Peter  Hunt 
should  accompany  Mr  Browne  to  Plymouth,  to  make 
agreement  about  the  Indian  complaints.' 

The  first  notice  of  the  appointment  of  military  officers, 
was  on  the  20th  of  March,  1653,  when  Peter  Hunt  was 
lieutenant,  and  John  Browne,  Jr.  ensign. 

October  25th,  1653.  The  damage  done  the  Indians  for 
the  trespasses  of  hogs,  horses,  &c,  for  the  last  two  years, 
was  ordered  to  be  paid  in  wampum,  '  out  of  the  wampum 
at  Walter  Palmer's.' 

12th  December,  1653.  Voted  that  the  price  of  corn 
should  be  at  5s.,  wheat  5s.,  rye  4s.,  Indian  corn  3s. 

11th  mo.  10,  1653.  Indians  killing  wolves  were  to  be 
paid. 

3d  mo.  22,  1654.  Peter  Hunt  and  John  Browne,  Jr. 
were  again  appointed  lieutenant  and  ensign,  '  and  allowed 
to  stand  by  the  honorable  bench  at  Plymouth  Court.' 

12th  mo.  1,  1654.  Mr  Browne  was  permitted  to  have 
for  his  use  four  rods  square  of  ground,  '  to  build  a, house 
on  something  near  the  meeting-house.' 

22d  mo.  1,  1654.  Voted  that  the  'new  highway 
towards  the  bay  be  perfected,  and  that  it  should  be  done 
under  the  inspection  of  Goodman  Paine,  and  Goodman 
Carpenter.' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  205 

'June  26th  1655.  At  a  town-meeting  it  was  agreed 
upon,  that  Mr  Newman,  our  teacher,  should  have  fifty 
pounds  a  year.'  Seven  men,  namely,  Mr  Joseph  Peck 
Thomas  Cooper,  Richard  Bowen,  Stephen  Paine,  Robert 
Martin,  Peter  Hunt,  and  William  Sabin,  were  chosen  a 
committee  '  for  the  levying  of  a  rate  according  to  person 
and  estate  for  the  raising  of  said  maintenance.' 

At  this  period,  so  much  indifference  as  to  the  support 
of  the  clergy  was  manifested  in  Plymouth  colony  as  to 
excite  the  alarm  of  the  other  confederated  colonies.  The 
complaint  of  Massachusetts  against  Plymouth,  on  this 
subject,  was  laid  before  the  Commissioners,  and  drew  from 
them  a  severe  reprehension.  Rehoboth  had  been  afflicted 
already  with  a  serious  schism,  and  by  its  proximity  to 
Providence  and  its  plantations,  where  there  was  a  uni- 
versal toleration,  the  practice  of  free  inquiry  was  en- 
couraged, and  principle,  fancy,  whim,  and  conscience,  all 
conspired  to  lessen  the  veneration  for  ecclesiastical  au- 
thority. 

Feburary  9th,  1655.  Mr  Peck,  Richard  Bowen  senior, 
Stephen  Paine  senior,  Thomas  Cooper  senior,  Robert 
Martin,  William  Carpenter  senior,  and  Peter  Hunt,  were 
chosen  townsmen.  '  It  was  also  granted  that  they  shall 
have  power  to  order  the  prudential  affairs  of  the  town, 
and  that  they  shall  have  power  to  call  a  town-meeting 
when  they  see  cause.' 

'  At  the  same  time  Father  Bowen  was  chosen  moderator 
to  see  good  orders  in  our  town-meetings.' 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  following  colonial  record,  that 
Mr  Browne,  a  principal  inhabitant  of  Rehoboth,  and  one 
of  the  colonial  magistrates,  entertained  scruples  as  to  the 
expediency  of  coercing  the  people  to  support  the  ministry, 
although  he  was  willing  to  contribute  his  proportion, 


206  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

'  Whereas,  a  petition  was  presented  unto  the  General 
Court  at  Plymouth,  the  first  of  June,  1655,  by  several  in- 
habitants of  the  town  of  Rehoboth,  whose  hands  were 
thereunto  subscribed,  desiring  the  Court  to  assist  them  in 
a  way  according  to  the  orders  of  other  colonies  about 
them,  for  the  raising  maintenance  for  their  minister ;  the 
sum  of  the  petition  seemed  to  hold  forth  that  those  whose 
hands  were  not  subscribed,  contributed  nothing,  or  so 
little  as  was  not  esteemed  of,  which  petition  occasioned 
some  discourse  about  a  forcible  way  to  compel  all  the 
inhabitants  of  that  town  to  pay  a  certain  sum  every  year, 
towards  the  maintenance  of  the  minister.  Whereupon 
Mr  John  Browne,  one  of  the  magistrates  then  sitting  in 
Court,  and  being  one  of  the  inhabitants  of  that  town,  and 
not  being  made  acquainted  with  the  said  petition  until 
the  names  of  the  inhabitants  were  subscribed ;  to  issue 
the  said  troublesome  controversy,  and  take  off  the  odium 
from  others,  did  propound  that  forasmuch  as  those  whose 
hands  were  to  the  petition  desired  to  submit  themselves 
to  a  rate,  that  if  the  Court  would  send  two  of  the  magis- 
trates unto  Rehoboth  to  take  notice  of  the  estates  of  the 
petitioners,  he  would  engage  himself  in  the  behalf  of  those 
who  were  the  inhabitants  of  the  said  town,  whose  hands 
were  not  subscribed  to  the  petition,  that  they  should  vol- 
untarily contribute  according  to  their  estates  ;  and  if  any 
of  them  fell  short  in  this  business,  he  would  supply  that 
want  out  of  his  own  estate,  and  this  he  would  make  good 
by  engaging  his  lands  for  seven  years  in  their  behalf  while 
they  staid,  though  he  himself  should  remove  from  the 
place,  which  was  approved  of,  and  Captain  Standish  and 
Mr  Hatherly  were  then  made  choice  of  by  the  Court  to 
see  it  ordered  accordingly.' 

July  13th,  1657.     Voted,  '  that  all  such  persons  or  any 
person   that  is  behind    hand   in   their  accounts  with  Mr 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  207 

Newman  for  this  year  present,  that  they  shall  make  up 
their  accounts  with  Mr  Newman  by  a  month  after  Michael- 
mas, and  in  case  it  be  neglected,  then  such  townsmen  as 
may  be  deputed  together  with  the  deacons  also  to  go  to 
such  persons  and  labor  to  convince  them  of  the  neglect 
of  their  duty ;  in  case  they  find  them  obstinate,  then  the 
Court  order  is  to  be  attended  on.' 

•  November  20th,  1657.  Stephen  Paine,  senior,  was 
ordered  to  assist  Deacon  Cooper,  'to  go  to  certain  the 
inhabitants  of  the  town,  to  put  them  on  to  clear  their 
accounts  with  Mr  Newman.' 

It  was  also  agreed  that  there  shall  be  a  town-meeting 
this  day  fortnight,  and  in  case  it  appear  that  any  person 
or  persons  be  behind  hand  with  Mr  Newman,  that  then 
some  effectual  course  may  be  taken  according  to  Court 
order,  to  make  such  to  pay  as  have  been  negligent  in  their 
duty  for  the  settling  of  Mr  Newman  amongst  us.' 

It  was  also  voted  that  persons  neglecting  to  attend 
town-meeting  should  be  fined  6c?. 

September  15th,  165S.  ]\Ir  Newman  was  exempted  from 
all  country  and  town  rates  ;  this  exemption  applied  to  him 
personally,  not  to  his  lands  in  case  of  sale  and  descent. 
December  9th,  1657.  '  It  was  voted  that  Sampson 
Mason  should  have  free  liberty  to  sojourn  with  us,  and  to 
buy  house,  lands,  or  meadow,  if  he  see  cause  for  his  settle- 
ment, provided  that  he  lives  peaceably  and  quietly.' 

Sampson  Mason,  ultimately  one  of  the  founders  of 
Swansey,  was  a  dragoon  in  the  Commonwealtli's  army, 
commanded  by  Oliver  Cromwell ;  —  became  a  Baptist  and 
emigrated  to  America. 

February  22nd,  165S.  'The  following  persons  are  ac- 
cepted as  freemen  of  the  town,  to  take  up  their  freedom, 
namely,  Joseph  Peck,  John  Peck,  Henry  Smith,  Robert 
Fuller,  John  Fitch,  Stephen  Paine,  Jonathan  Bliss,  William 
Buckland,  Rice  Leonard.' 


208 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 


William  Buckland  came  from  Hingham ;  this  name 
afterwards  was  called  Bucklin. 

A  division  of  the  meadows  on  the  north  side  of  the  town 
was  made,  June  22nd,  1658,  among  the  following  persons; 
this  appears  to  have  been  the  first  division  in  the  north 
purchase,  (afterwards  Attleborough.) 


John  Peck, 

George  Robinson, 

Robert  Abell, 

Mr  Winchester's  children, 

Mr  Newman, 

George  Kendrick, 

Stephen  Paine,  senior, 

John  Butterworth, 

John  Read, 

Thomas  Willmarth, 

John  Fitch, 

Henry  Smith, 

William  Carpenter,  senior, 

John  Millard,  junior, 

Robert  Wheaton, 

Richard  Bullock, 

Robert  Martin, 

John  Perrum, 

Richard  Bowen,  senior, 

Obadiah  Bowen, 

Anthony  Perry, 

Joseph  Peck, 

John  Matthewes, 

John  Allin, 

John  Sutton, 


Nicholas  Ide, 
James  Reddeway, 
Jonathan  Bliss, 
Peter  Hunt, 
Thomas  Cooper,  junior, 
William  Sabin, 
Philip  Walker, 
Daniel  Smith, 
John  Doggett 
Nicholas  Peck, 
Rice  Leonard, 
Robert  Jones, 
Francis  Stevens, 
Thomas  Cooper,  senior, 
John  Woodcock, 
Edward  Hall, 
Stephen  Paine,  junior, 
Roger  Amadowne, 
Richard  Bowen,  junior, 
Robert  Fuller, 
William  Bucklin, 
Mr  Peck, 

John  Millard,  senior, 
William  Carpenter, 


2d,  9th  mo.  1658.  The  Indians  were  forbidden  to  set 
the  traps  within  the  town's  bounds. 

30th,  11th  mo.  1659.  Voted,  to  agree  with  Richard 
Bullock  to  keep  the  office  of  town-clerk,  '  to  give  him 
16s.  a  year,  and  to  be  paid  for  births,  burials,  and  mar- 
riages besides.' 

21st,  12th  mo.  1660.  In  town-meetirg  it  was  voted  that 
Mr  Willet  should  have  liberty  to  take  up  five  hundred  oi 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  209 

six  hundred  acres  of  land  northward  or  eastward  beyond 
the  bounds  of  our  town,  where  he  shall  think  it  most  con- 
venient for  himself. 

1st  day,  2d  mo.  1661.  Gilbert  Brooks  of  Scituate,  had 
'  free  liberty  to  be  an  inhabitant  of  Rehoboth,  and  to  pur- 
chase what  he  may,  if  he  be  minded  to  come  amongst  us.' 

'  6th,  7th  mo.  1661.  Lieutenant  Hunt  and  Joseph  Peck 
were  chosen  to  view  the  damage  in  the  Indians'  corn  upon 
Kickamuet  neck,  and  Consumpsit  neck,  and  to  give  the 
town  notice  of  it.' 

27th  of  the  12th  mo.  1661.  Samuel  Luther  was  per- 
mitted to  be  a  sojourner  to  buy  or  hire. 

December  16th,  1662.  A  fine  of  Is.  6d.  ordered  to  be 
paid  by  such  as  neglected  to  attend  town-meeting. 

January  22d,  1663.  Humphrey  Tiffany  permitted  to 
be  a  sojourner,  and  to  buy  or  hire. 

The  towns-people  were  forbidden  by  order  of  Court  to 
herd  their  cattle  on  Indians'  land,  '  to  the  prejudice  of  the 
Indians  at  Kickamuet.' 

July  3d,  1663.  It  was  voted  that  a  letter  should  be  sent 
to  Samuel  Fuller  of  Plymouth,  '  that  if  he  will  come  upon 
tryal  according  to  his  own  proposition,  the  town  is  willing 
to  accept  of  him  ;  and  in  case  the  town  and  he  do  accord, 
the  town  is  willing  to  accommodate  him  in  the  best  way 
they  can  for  his  encouragement.' 

Mr  Fuller  was  a  physician  residing  at  Plymouth. 

At  the  same  town-meeting,  Goodman  Sarle  was  accept- 
ed, and  a  home  lot  voted  to  him. 

Mr.  Newman  the  pastor,  died  on  the  5th  of  July,  1663. 
His  death  was  attended  with  some  singular  circumstances. 
'  He  had  (says  Eliot)  a  certain  premonition  of  it,  and 
seemed  to  triumph  in  the  prospect  of  its  being  near.  He 
was  apparently  in  perfect  health,  and  preached  a  sermon 
upon  these  words — Job  xiv.  14.  ^  All  the  days  of  my  ap- 

PART    II.  27 


210  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

pointed  time  will  I  wait  till  my  change  come.^  In  the 
afternoon  of  the  following  Lord's  day,  he  asked  the  deacon 
to  pray  with  him,  saying  he  had  not  long  to  live.  As  soon 
as  he  had  finished  his  prayer,  he  said  the  time  was  come 
that  he  must  leave  this  world.  But  his  friends  seeing  no 
immediate  signs  of  dissolution,  thought  it  was  the  influence 
of  imagination.  But  he  turned  round  saying,  '  angels  do 
your  office,'  immediately  expired.  In  those  times  many 
marvellous  tales  were  received  as  true,  which  would  not 
bear  scrutiny.  But  the  circumstances  of  Mr  Newman's 
death  were  notorious,  and  the  accounts  of  many  witnesses 
concurrent.  He  might  have  felt  that  sinking  of  the  heart, 
that  indescribable  and  painful  feeling  which  is  said  in 
many  instances  to  be  the  precursor  of  death,  and  yet  have 
discovered  no  external  signs  of  failing  health,  and  while 
his  friends  were  unconscious  of  its  approach,  the  inward 
consciousness  of  the  sufferer  might  seem  to  them  the 
inspiration  of  prophecy.  In  some  organizations,  pecu- 
liarly nervous,  a  strong  apprehension  of  death  has  pro- 
duced it. 

Mr  Newman  was  subjected  to  many  trials,  perplexities, 
and  troubles.  Obadiah  Holmes  who  came  from  Salem 
and  some  others  of  his  church,  disliking  his  discipline, 
and  some  of  his  tenets,  withdrew  from  their  connexion 
and  established  what  they  called  a  new  church.  This 
happened  in  1649.  They  soon  embraced  the  principles 
of  the  Baptists,  and  received  another  baptism  from  the 
hands  of  Mr  Clark  of  Newport.  This  was  the  first  ap- 
pearance of  what  was  denominated  schism  in  the  colony 
of  Plymouth.  Lyford's  disturbance  was  a  sedition  rather 
than  a  schism.  Mr  Newman  excommunicated  Holmes 
and  his  followers,  and  incited  the  civil  authority  against 
them.  Four  petitions  were  presented  to  the  court ;  one 
from  Rehoboth  signed   by  thirtyfive  persons ;    one  from 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  211 

Taunton  ;  one  from  all  the  clergymen  in  the  colony  but 
two,  and  one  from  the  government  of  Massachusetts.  The 
government  of  Plymouth  merely  directed  the  schismatics 
to  refrain  from  practices  disagreeable  to  their  brethren, 
and  to  appear  before  the  Court.  In  October,  1650,  John 
Hazel,  Edward  Smith  and  his  wife,  Obadiah  Holmes, 
Joseph  Torrey  and  his  wife,  the  wife  of  James  Mann  and 
William  Buell  and  his  wife  were  indicted  for  continuing 
their  meeting  from  house  to  house  on  the  Lord's  day,  con- 
trary to  the  order  of  Court ;  but  it  does  not  appear  that 
any  punishment  was  inflicted.  In  Massachusetts  Holmes 
did  not  escape  so  easily.  Some  time  after  his  trial  at 
Plymouth,  he  was  arrested  near  Boston,  tried,  and  sen- 
tenced to  receive  thirty  lashes,  which  sentence  was  exe- 
cuted with  great  severity  and  cruelty ;  he  then  with  most 
of  his  followers  removed  to  Newport  in  Rhode  Island, 
where  he  succeeded  Mr  Clark  in  1652,  and  remained  there 
until  his  death  in  1682.  He  was  a  native  of  Preston  in 
Lancashire,  (England,)  and  was  distinguished  for  his  un- 
conquerable resolution. 

Mr  Newman  was  born  in  Oxfordshire,  and  educated  at 
the  University  of  Oxford.  He  was  a  distinguished  minister 
in  England,  and  is  particularly  noticed  by  Anthony  Wood. 
He  abandoned  his  country  at  the  commencement  of  the 
persecution  by  Archbishop  Laud. 

He  was  an  indefatigable  scholar,  and  a  devout  and 
zealous  minister,  but  his  temper  was  irascible,  and  it  was 
by  no  means  softened  when  he  was  compelled  to  witness 
in  his  own  congregation  the  commencement  of  a  religious 
schism.* 

*  Hopestill  Newman,  a  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Newman,  was  mar- 
ried to  the  Rev.  George  Shove,  a  native  of  Dorchester,  and  third  minister  of 
Taunton.    She  died  March  7, 1674,  leaving  three  sons  and  two  daughters. 


212  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

In  September,  1G63,  'At  a  meeting  of  the  church  and 
town,  it  was  concluded  that  Mr  Zachariah  Symmes  should 
have  £40  for  this  year,  his  diet  at  Mr  Newman's  be- 
sides.' 

Stephen  Payne  and  Lieutenant  Hunt  '  were  chosen  to 
go  down  to  his  friends,  to  use  means  for  the  settling  of  him 
with  us  for  this  present  year.' 

November  2,  1663.  Goodman  Payne,  John  Allen,  sen., 
Lieutenant  Hunt,  Mr  Browne,  Anthony  Perry,  Goodman 
Walker,  Thomas  Cooper,  jun.  and  Henry  Smith,  were 
chosen  a  committee  to  buy  or  to  build  a  parsonage  or 
'  house  for  the  ministry.'  At  the  same  time  a  rate  was 
voted  to  pay  the  charges. 

November  25,  1663.  It  was  voted  in  town-meeting, 
'  that  whereas  God  by  his  providence  hath  lately  taken 
away  from  us  our  dear  father,  yet  out  of  his  goodness  and 
mercy  hath  brought  amongst  us  Mr  Zachariah  Symmes, 
whom  we  honor  and  *  yet  with  reference  to  the 
place  we  live  in,  we  judge  it  expedient  to  look  out  for 
another  godly,  able  minister  to  join  with  him  in  the  work 
of  the  ministry,  and  therefore  do  accept  of  Mr  Willett's 
proposition,  as  to  embrace  any  opportunity  that  providence 
shall  guide  him  to,  for  that  end.' 

June  20th,  1664.  It  was  voted  '  that  the  public  house 
intended  for  the  ministry,'  shall  be  set  on  the  west  side  of 
the  run,  in  the  middle  of  the  common,  being  the  place  ap- 
pointed for  a  teacher's  lot,  being  six  acres.' 

January  24,  1665.  Mr  Willett's  authority  to  engage  a 
minister  to  assist  Mr  Symmes  was  again  confirmed. 

April  13,  1666.    Mr  Symnes  was  admitted  an  inhabitant. 

'  Mr  Myles  was  voted  to  be  a  lecturer,  viz.  to  preach 
once  a  fortnight  on  the  week  day,  once  on  the  Sabbath 
day.' 

*  Illegible. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  ~    213 

May  15th,  1666.  In  town  meeting,  '  it  was  agreed  by 
joint  consent,  that  a  third  man  alone  for  the  work  of  the 
ministry  should  be  forthwith  looked  for,  and  such  a  one 
as  may  preach  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  whole,  (if  it  be 
the  will  of  God  for  the  settling  of  peace  amongst  us, 
according  as  the  former  and  renewed  council  sent  us  from 
our  honored  governor  and  assistants.'  The  meeting  was 
adjourned  to  the  19th  to  make  choice  of  a  committee  to 
obtain  a  '  third  man  alone  for  the  work  of  the  ministry.' 
'  Richard  Bullock  declared  his  protest  against  this  act,  as 
judging  it  the  sole  work  of  the  church.' 

August  13,  1666.  '  It  was  again  voted  in  town-meeting, 
that  an  able  man  for  the  work  of  the  ministry  shall  with 
all  convenient  speed  be  looked  for,  as  an  officer  of  this 
church,  and  a  minister  for  the  town,  such  a  one  as  may 
be  satisfactory  to  the  generality.' 

It  was  also  voted  '  that  Mr  Myles  shall  still  continue  a 
lecturer  on  the  week  day,  and  further  on  the  sabbath,  if 
he  be  thereunto  legally  called.' 

A  committee  was  now  chosen  to  engage  a  minister 
according  to  the  previous  vote  of  the  town.  The  com- 
mittee v/as  Deacon  Cooper,  Lieutenant  Hunt,  Nicholas 
Peck,  Ensign  Smith,  and  Nathaniel  Payne,'  and  they 
were  to  go  in  the  first  place  to  Mr  Esterbrooks.' 

December  10,  1666.  In  town-meeting  it  was  voted 
*  that  Mr  Buckley  should  continue  still  amongst  us  till  the 
first  of  April  next  ensuing  upon  further  trial,  in  reference 
to  the  former  vote  of  August  13,  1666,  which  is  in  order 
to  the  settlement  in  the  ministry,  if  he  be  approved  of.' 

It  is  very  evident  that  much  dissension  in  religious 
affairs  at  this  time  prevailed  in  this  town,  to  such  a  degree 
that  the  governor  and  assistants  interfered.  These  dis- 
sensions might  have  been  increased  from  an  accidental 
circumstance.     This  was  the  arrival  of  John  Myles,  the 


214  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY., 

elder  of  the  first  Baptist  church  in  Wales,  which  was 
founded  at  Swansea,  in  1649  ;  this  church,  although  its 
numbers  were  small  at  its  commencement,  had  increased 
to  three  hundred  in  1662.  Mr  Myles  in  that  year  was 
ejected  from  his  charge  for  non-conformity.  He  fled  to 
America,  bringing  with  him  his  church  records  written  in 
Welsh,*  and  followed  by  some  adherents.  In  1663,  he 
founded  the  first  Baptist  church  in  the  Plymouth  colony, 
and  older  than  any  one  in  Massachusetts,at  Wannamoiset.f 
Shortly  after  his  arrival  the  church  consisting  of  Mr 
Myles  the  elder,  James  Brown,  Nicholas  Tanner,  Joseph 
Carpenter,  John  Butterworth,  Eldad  Kingsley,  and  Benja- 
min Alby,  were  united  by  a  solemn  covenant.  This  was 
held  by  the  Plymouth  government  to  be  an  act  of  contu- 
macy and  a  public  disturbance,  and  each  person  concerned 
was  fined  £5,  prohibited  from  worship  for  the  space  of  a 
month,  and  advised  to  remove  from  Rehoboth.  It  was 
perhaps  discreet  on  the  part  of  the  government  to  endea- 
vor to  prevent  the  growth  of  schism  within  the  limits  of 
their  corporate  grants,  but  they  do  not  appear  at  this  time 
to  have  entertained  a  design  of  violating  the  rights  of 
conscience,  or  of  stifling  the  worship  of  conscientious 
men  ;  for  after  the  Baptists  had,  in  pursuance  of  their  ad- 
vice, removed  first  to  that  part  of  the  ancient  Swansey 
now  called  Barrington,  where  they  erected  a  meeting- 
house, and  afterwards  to  that  part  of  the  same  town  near 
the  bridge  which  now  perpetuates  the  name  of  Myles, 
(where  they  erected  another,)  they  granted  them  and 
others  in  1667,  the  lands  of  Wannamoiset,  which  had  been 
considered  as  within  the  jurisdiction  of  Rehoboth,  and  in 
the  same  year  the  town  of  Swansey  was  incorporated. 

*  Now  in  existence. 

i  Tfcen  within  the  jurisdiction  of  Rehohoth,  now  Swansey. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY,  215 

The  Reverend  Noah  Newman,  the  son  of  the  late  pastor, 
was  finally  settled  in  the  place  of  his  father  in  March,  1668. 

In  December,  1668,  a  salary  of  £40  and  firewood,  were 
voted  in  town-meeting,  '  for  his  comfortable  maintenance 
for  his  carrying  an  end  the  work  of  the  Almighty  amongst 
us.  Deacon  Cooper,  Lieutenaht  Hunt,  and  Goodman 
Read,  were  to  see  the  aforesaid  order  accomplished,  and  to 
speak  to  them  who  were  defective  in  not  doing  their  duty.' 

Various  other  privileges  and  accommodations  were 
afterwards  voted  him  ;  still  it  would  seem  from  the  terms 
of  the  votes,  that  from  many  it  was  difficult  to  obtain  any 
part  of  the  minister's  maintenance,  for  although  a  majority 
afterwards  raised  his  salary  to  £60,  yet  a  committee  was 
chosen,  '  to  take  some  pains  to  see  how  it  might  be  raised, 
that  is,  it  might  be  raised  freely,  and  that  it  might  be 
effectually  accomplished,  and  also  for  the  £40  a  year, 
which  is  past  be  inquired  into,  to  see  if  it  be  accomplished; 
and  if  the  committee  do  apprehend  that  the  aforesaid  pay 
will  not  effect  the  thing,  then  the  town  to  seriously  con- 
sider of  some  other  way  that  it  may  be  effected,  for  the 
comfortable  carrying  on  the  worship  and  ordinances  of 
God  amongst  us.' 

Notwithstanding  all  these  votes,  the  maintenance  of  the 
minister  continued  to  be  in  arrear,  for  a  committee  was 
raised  '  for  the  inquiring  into  and  insisting  those  whom  it 
concerns,  that  Mr  Newman's  maintenance  may  be  brought 
in  for  three  years,  and  also  for  three  years  past.'  Still  the 
measures  were  ineffectual,  for  in  1671,  it  was  voted,  'as 
Mr  Newman's  salary  had  not  been  paid,  that  there  shall 
be  a  trial  made  by  contribution  every  sabbath  day.' 

November  25th,  1663.  '  It  was  voted  that  Alexander 
the  Scotchman,  a  brick-maker  should  be  freely  accepted 
amongst  us  for  to  make  brick.' 

December  20th,  1664.      £4  17s.  was  voted,  being  the 


2 1  6  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

sum  which  Captain  Willet  agreed  to  give  Philip  for  grow- 
ing corn  in  the  neck,  and  that  Captain  Willet  should 
agree  with  Philip  for  the  year  ensuing. 

May  22d,  1665.  '  Sam,  the  Indian  that  keeps  the  cows 
was  admitted  by  the  town  as  an  inhabitant,  to  buy  or  hire 
house  or  lands  if  he  can,  in  case  the  Court  allow  it.' 

This  is  believed  to  have  been  the  first  and  only  instance 
of  an  Indian  resident  amongst  the  English,  who  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  rights  of  citizenship  within  this  colony. 

This  vote,  if  it  was  '  allowed  by  the  Court,'  (which  does 
not  appear)  gave  to  this  Indian  all  the  privileges  of  his 
English  neighbors.     Sam  was  probably  a  CJiristian. 

May  22d,  1665.  'John  Lowell  was  admitted  by  the 
town,  to  buy  or  hire  house  or  land  if  he  can.' 

June  6th,  1665.  The  town  voted  to  pay  the  governor 
their  proportion  of  £50  ;  also,  that  there  be  a  standing 
council,  three  in  number,  with  the  governor,  and  that  this 
council  be  renewed  yearly. 

April  ISth,  1666.  Mr  Tanner  was  admitted  an  inhabitant. 

May  23d,  1666.  '  It  was  agreed  that  Mr  Myles  be  receiv- 
ed an  inhabitant  amongst  us,  to  buy  or  hire  for  his  money.' 

June  26th,  1666.  '  Stephen  Paine  senior,  Mr  Browne, 
and  Goodman  Allen,  were  chosen  selectmen  to  answer 
the  Court  order.'  They  were  the  first.  The  townsmen 
still  continued  to  be  chosen  as  usual. 

The  other  selectmen  chosen  in  different  years  between 
this  and  1675,  including  the  last,  were  Peter  Hunt,  Henry 
Smith,  Philip  Walker,  Nicholas  Peck,  Anthony  Perry. 

December  10th,  1666,  Thomas  Estabrook  was  admitted 
an  inhabitant. 

April,  1668.  '  Voted,  that  whereas  the  select  townsmen 
did  give  Philip  Sachem  a  gratuity  at  the  sealing  of  an 
evidence  of  eight  miles  square,  the  sum  of  £8,  12s.,  that 
the  said  select  townsmen  shall  make  a  rate  for  the  pay- 
ment of  it.' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 


217 


May  26th,  1668.  A  division 
chase,  (now  Attleborough)  was 
ing  persons. 

Obadiah  Bowen, 
Samuel  Luther, 
Stephen  Paine,  senior, 
John  Savage, 
Goody  Hide, 
Childrens'  lands, 
Thomas  Reade, 
Preserved  Abell, 
William  Carpenter, 
Gilbert  Brooks, 
Thomas  and  Jacob  Ormsby, 
Robert  Jones, 
John  Reade,  senior, 
Nathaniel  Paine, 
Robert  Wheaton, 
Widow  Carpenter, 
Benjamin  Buckland, 
Philip  Walker, 
John  Peren,  senior, 
John  Ormsby, 
Jaret  In  graham, 
Nathaniel  Paine, 
Henry  Smith, 
Nicholas  Peck, 
Jonathan  Bosworth, 
Samuel  Carpenter, 
Richard  Whitaker, 
Mr  Tanner, 
Stephen  Paine,  junior, 
Jonathan  Palmer, 
James  Redeway, 
Nicholas  Ide, 
Deacon  Cooper, 
James  Gilson, 
Rice  Leonard, 
Samuel  Newman, 
John  Doggett, 
Anthony  Perry, 
Thomas  Cooper,  junior, 
George  Kendrick, 
PART    II.  28 


of  lands  in  the  north  pur- 
made  amongst  the  foUow- 


John  Butterworth, 
Mr  Myles, 

Richard  Bowen,  junior, 
Mr  Newman, 
Joseph  Peck, 
William  Sabin, 
Ichabod  Miller,  junior, 
Mr  Daniel  Smith, 
Mr  Browne, 
Robert  Miller, 
John  Titus, 
Nathaniel  Peck, 
George  Robinson, 
Robert  Fuller, 
John  Fitch, 
Thomas  Willmarth, 
William  Buckland, 
John  Kinslye, 
Ovid  Bullock, 
Jonathan  Fuller, 
John  Miller,  senior, 
Joseph  Carpenter, 
Samuel  Peck, 
Sampson  Mason, 
John  Allin,  junior, 
John  Reade,  junior, 
John  Lowell, 
Thomas  Grant, 
Israel  Peck, 
Captain  Willet, 
Jonathan  Blisn, 
Lieutenant  Hunt, 
Eldad  Kinsly, 
Joseph  Buckland, 
Francis  Stevens, 
Edward  Hall, 
John  Woodeock, 
John  Allin,  senior, 
Abr.  Martin. 


218  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

May  14th,  1669.  'The  town  with  one  consent  declared 
by  vote  that  the  proposition  from  the  Court  about  sales  of 
guns,  powder,  and  shot  to  the  Indians,  they  apprehend  it 
will  be  greatly  detrimental  to  our  English  interest,  and 
therefore  declare  themselves  against  it.' 

Ensign  Smith,  Nicholas  Peck,  William  Sabin,  and 
Philip  Walker,  were  chosen  a  committee  to  meet  a  com- 
mittee of  the  new  town  of  Swansey,  to  settle  a  contro- 
versy (probably  about  boundaries.) 

May  16,  1672.  It  was  agreed  and  voted  that  the  towns- 
men are  to  draw  up  such  particulars  as  may  be  necessary 
for  the  general  good  of  tlie  town,  as  instructions  for  the 
deputies  to  manage  at  the  Court. 

May  14th,  1673.  John  Woodcock,  Thomas  Willmarth, 
Josiah  Palmer,  Thomas  Reade,  and  John  Ormsby,  were 
propounded  to  the  freemen  at  the  town-meeting  to  take  up 
their  freedom,  and  approved  of. 

November  13th,  1674.  It  was  voted  that  a  new  meet- 
ing-house be  built. 

EASTHAM. 

The  territory  comprised  within  the  limits  of  the  ancient 
town  of  Eastham,  was  originally  owned  by  the  Nauset 
Indians. 

In  1640,  a  tract  of  land  extending  from  the  bounds  of 
Yarmouth  to  three  nqiles  eastward  of  Namskeket,  and 
*  across  from  sea  to  sea,'  was  granted  by  the  General 
Court  '  to  the  purchasers  or  old  comers  of  Plymouth,'  but 
no  settlement  was  made  on  this  tract. 

In  1643,  the  people  of  Plymouth  becoming  dissatisfied 
with  their  situation,  deliberated  upon  removing,  and  after 
many  consultations  and  much  difference  in  opinion,  deter- 
mined to  remove. 

Upon  a  proposition  of  Governor  Bradford,  the  church 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  219 

directed  a  committee  to  repair  to  Nauset,  and  to  ascertain 
the  expediency  of  establishing  their  settlement  there. 
The  committee  made  a  favorable  report,  and  '  the  pur- 
chasers or  old  comers,'  to  whom  the  grant  was  made  in 
1640,  consented  to  the  plan.  In  June,  1644,  the  church 
appointed  a  committee  to  explore  and  survey  Nauset,  and 
authorized  them  to  purchase  it  of  the  natives.  Of  this 
committee  was  Governor  Bradford,  and  several  members 
of  the  church,  amongst  whom  were  Thomas  Prince,  John 
Doane,  Nicholas  Snow,  Josias  Cooke,  Richard  Higgins, 
John  Smalley,  and  Edward  Bangs.  This  committee  after 
an  accurate  examination,  decided  that  Nauset  was  not 
sufficiently  extensive  to  accommodate  the  whole  of  the 
church  at  Plymouth,  but  they  purchased  of  Mattaquason, 
the  sachem  of  Monamoyick,  a  tract  of  land  called  Pochet, 
with  two  islands  lying  before  Potanumaquat,  with  a  beach 
and  small  island  upon  it ;  also  all  the  land  called  Nam- 
skeket^  extending  northward  to  the  bounds  of  the  territory 
belonging  to  George  the  sachem,  excepting  a  small  island 
which  was  purchased  afterwards.  From  George  the 
sachem  of  the  Nausets,  the  successor  of  the  sachem  Aspi- 
net,  they  purchased  all  his  lands  '  extending  northward, 
excepting  a  small  neck  of  land  lying  by  the  harbor  on  the 
east  side  of  the  tract ;  which  neck  of  land  the  English 
stipulated  to  fence,  that  the  Indians  might  use  it  as  a 
corn-field.' 

The  right  of  getting  shell-fish  in  the  cove,  and  a  part 
of  all  the  whales  driven  on  shore,  was  reserved  to  the 
Indians.  There  being  no  claimant  of  the  land  in  the  bay 
north  of  the  territory  purchased  of  George,  called  Billings- 
gate, the  Indians  consented  that  the  English  should  occupy 
them;  but  a  long  time  after  in  1666,  an  Indian  who  was 
called  Lieutenant  Anthony,  claimed  the  Billingsgate  lands, 
and  the  settlers  purchased  his  claim,  he  reserving  a  small 


220  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

neck  called  Tuttomnest ;  this  tract  'extended  from  the 
northern  limits  of  Nauset,  to  a  little  brook  named  by  the 
Indians,  Sapokonisk,  and  by  the  English,  Bound  Brook.' 
Previously  to  this,  they  had  purchased  of  the  subjects  of 
sachem  George,  after  his  death,  the  neck  which  had  been 
reserved  to  him,  and  allowed  the  Indians  a  piece  of  land 
at  Gesquoquaset ;  and  not  long  after  they  purchased  '  the 
fertile  island  of  Pochet,  which  in  the  first  sale  had  been 
reserved  by  Mattaquason  to  the  Indians.' 

In  1644,  the  Court  granted  '  unto  the  church  of  New- 
Plymouth,  or  them  that  go  to  dwell  at  Nauset,  all  the  tract 
of  land  lying  between  sea  and  sea,  from  the  purchasers 
bounds  at  Namskeket,  to  the  herring  brook  at  Billingsgate, 
with  said  herring  brook,  and  all  the  meadows  on  both 
sides  the  said  brook,  with  great  bass  pond  there,  and  all 
meadows  and  islands  lying  within  said  tract.' 

'  This  grant  included  Eastham,  Welfleet,  and  Orleans. 
It  extended  south  to  Monamoyick  bay.'  At  one  end  it  was 
bounded  by  lands  of  the  purchasers  or  old  comers,  (after- 
wards Harwich)  and  on  the  other  by  lands  which  after- 
wards were  included  in  the  town  of  Truro,  being  fifteen 
miles  in  length. 

The  church  of  Plymouth  in  consideration  of  the  same 
sum  which  they  had  paid,  conveyed  their  right  to  Thomas 
Prence,  John  Doane,  Nicholas  Snow,  Josias  Cook,  Richard 
Higgins,  John  Smalley,  and  Edward  Bangs,  who  immedi- 
ately commenced  a  settlement  at  Nauset.* 

*  John  Doane  came  from  England  early.  In  1633,  he  was  elected  an  assist- 
ant, and  afterwards  a  deacon  of  the  church  at  Plymouth.  His  posterity  are 
numerous  and  respectable,  and  reside  principally  within  the  limits  of  ancient 
Eastham. 

Edward  Bangs  and  Nicholas  Snow  arrived  at  Plymouth  in  the  ship  Anne,  in 
July,  1623.     Richard  Higgins  was  one  of  the  freemen  of  Plymouth,  in  1633. 

The  descendants  of  Bangs,  Snow,  and  Higgins,  as  well  as  those  of  Cook  and 
Smalley,  still  remain  in  the  lower  part  of  the  county  of  Barnstable,  and  are 
numerous,  particularly  those  of  the  three  first. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Mr  Prence  arrived  in  November,  1621,  in  the  ship  For- 
tune ;  he  was  then  only  twentyone  years  of  age.  In  1634, 
and  in  1638,  he  had  been  chosen  governor,  and  was  always 
when  not  exercising  the  functions  of  chief  magistrate,  one 
of  the  assistants,  and  frequently  the  first,  or  deputy  gov- 
ernor. 

A  church  was  soon  gathered  at  Nauset,  but  no  pastor 
was  ordained  for  many  years.  ' 

The  settlement  increased  so  rapidly,  that  an  application 
was  made  to  the  General  Court  for  an  incorporation,  and 
on  the  2d  of  June,  1646,  the  Court  ordered,  '  Nauset  is 
granted  to  be  a  township,  and  to  have  all  the  privileges  of 
a  township,  as  other  towns  within  the  government  have.' 

The  Reverend  John  Mayo  came  here  from  Barnstable 
about  this  time,  and  preached  to  the  people,  '  but  some 
differences  arising,'  he  left  Eastham  and  went  to  Boston 
in  1649. 

In  1654,  the  line  between  Eastham  and  the  lands  be- 
longing '  to  the  purchasers  or  old  comers,'  was  established. 
It  began  at  the  river  Namskeket,  and  extended  to  the 
eastern  harbor,  or  Monamoyick. 

The  inhabitants  of  Eastham  were  not  sufficiently  nume- 
rous to  support  a  pastor,  until  1672,  when  Samuel  Treat 
was  ordained. 

Mr  Treat  was  the  eldest  son  of  Robert  Treat,  the  gov- 
ernor of  Connecticut,  a  man  of  talent,  zealous  in  the  cause 
of  religion,  and  uncommonly  successful  in  the  conversion 
of  the  natives.  In  1685,  the  christian  Indian  men  and 
women  within  the  limits  of  Mr  Treat's  parish  were  five 
hundred,  and  the  children  were  supposed  to  amount  to 
thrice  that  number.  He  spoke  and  wrote  the  Indian 
language  with  great  facility.  By  familiar  visits  and  kind 
and  affectionate  treatment,,  he  won  the  regards  of  these 
rude  savages,  and  they  loved  him  with   the  affection  of 


221 


222  MEMOIR  OF,  PLYMOUTH  COLONY, 

children.  During  the  subsequent  Indian  war,  the  benefit 
of  the  deep-rooted  attachment  of  the  Nauset  Indians  for 
the  English  was  sensibly  felt.  Mr  Treat  continued  in  the 
ministry  at  Eastham  fortyfive  years,  and  until  his  death, 
March  18th,  1717,  at  the  age  of  sixtynine.* 

*  The  biographer  of  Mr  Treat  represents  him  as  a  man  of  much  kindness  of 
heart,  but  as  a  Calvinist  of  the  '  straitest  sect.'  He  did  not  profess  '  that  mod- 
erate Calvinism  which  is  so  common  at  the  present  time,  and  which  by  giving 
up,  or  explaining  away  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  the  party,  like  a  porcupine 
disarmed  of  its  quills,  is  unable  to  resist  the  feeblest  attack;  but  consistent 
Calvinism,  with  all  its  hard  and  sharp  points,  by  which  it  can  courageously 
defend  itself;  in  fine,  such  Calvinism  as  the  adamantine  author  of  the  system 
would  himself  have  avowed.' 

He  quotes  from  his  manuscript  sermons,  particularly  from  a  discourse,  text, 
Luke  xvi.  23.  His  denunciations  are  terrific.  After  threatening  sinners  with 
everlasting  punishment,  he  says,  '  Consider,  God  himself  shall  be  the  principal 
agent  in  thy  misery.  He  is  that  consuming  fire  ;  his  breath  is  thy  bellows, 
which  blows  up  the  flame  of  hell  forever  ;  he  is  the  devouring  fire,  the  ever- 
lasting burning ;  and  if  he  punish  thee,  if  he  meet  thee  in  his  fury,  he  will  not 
meet  thee  as  a  man  ;  he  will  give  thee  an  omnipotent  blow.  Little  dost  thou 
know  what  it  is  to  enter  the  lists  of  contention  with  the  Almighty.  If  his 
wrath  kindle  but  a  little  while,  we  wither  before  it.  Now  thou  art  afraid  of 
the  wrath  of  man  ;  what  wilt  thou  do  when  God  takes  thee  in  hand  .' 

'  Consider,  God  will  take  delight  to  execute  vengeance  on  thee.  God  de- 
lights in  justice,  and  in  executing  his  own  decrees.  Now  it  was  his  eternal 
decree  to  destroy  sinners  forever.  He  purposed  to  shew  his  power,  and  make 
his  wrath  known  upon  the  vessels  of  wrath  fitted  for  destruction.  But  woe  to 
that  soul  whom  God  shall  delight  to  punish.  Now  thou  laughest  at  the  re- 
proofs which  God  gives  thee  by  his  ministers  and  people.  God  will  laugh  at 
thee  shortly.  And  wilt  thou  bear  when  he  shall  torment  thee,  and  thou  shalt 
roar  under  thy  torments  ?  Thou  shalt  cry  for  mercy,  and  he  shall  mock  thee. 
Thou  now  rejoicest  in  sinning  ;  he  will  ere  long  rejoice  in  thy  calamity.' 

After  threatening  sinners  with  hell,  he  says,  « Consider  what  must  be  thy 
employment  there.  1.  Sin.  Some  think  sinning  ends  with  this  life  ;  but  it  is 
a  mistake.  The  creature  is  held  under  an  everlasting  law  ;  the  damned  in- 
crease in  sin  in  hell.  Possibly  the  mention  of  this  may  please  thee.  But 
remember  there  shall  be  no  pleasant  sins  there  ;  no  eating,  drinking,  singing, 
dancing,  wanton  dalliance,  and  drinking  stolen  waters  ;  but  damned  sins,  bitter, 
hellish  sins,  sins  exasperated  by  torments,  cursing  God,  spite,  rage,  and  blas- 
phemy. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONV.  223 

At  a  meeting  of  the  General  Court,  (June,  1674,)  it  was 
ordered  that  Mannamoiett,  Paomet,  and  Satucket,  which 

•  2.  Tliou  shalt  be  delivered  up  into  the  hands  of  the  tormentors  ;  then  Satan 
will  pay  thee  thy  wages  for  thy  servile  slavery  to  him,  and  thou  shalt  know 
what  a  cruel  master  thou  hast  here  served.  What  cruelty  hath  Satan  some- 
times exercised  to  some  here  in  this  world,  that  have  been  possessed  by  him, 
and  to  others  that  have  sold  themselves  to  him  !  What  amazing  stories  doth  the 
world  afford  of  such  things !  What  dost  thou  think  he  will  do,  when  he  hath 
unlimited  commission,  and  full  possession  ?  How  wilt  thou  endure  when  thou 
shalt  have  a  thousand  devils  rending,  and  tearing,  and  macerating  thee  ;  when 
all  the  rage  of  hell  shall  fall  on  thee  without  restraint  ? 

'  3.  The  never  dying  worm  shall  gnaw  and  eat  out  all  the  heart  of  thy  com- 
fort. Thou  shall  become  thy  own  executioner  ;  thy  conscience  shall  pursue 
thee  in  hell,  always  crying  out  against  thee,  and  bringing  bitter  things  to  thy 
mind,  making  thee  to  wring  thy  hands,  and  howl  out  sad  lamentations. 

'  Thou  canst  hardly  sit  under  one  of  these  lectures  now  coming  from  the 
mouth  of  a  poor  minister ;  but  let  me  tell  thee,  conscience  in  hell  will  read  it 
after  another  manner  than  can  now  be  conceived;  every  thought  and  consid- 
eration whereof,  will  be  a  sharp  dagger  at  thy  heart,  that  will  let  out  all  joy 
and  comfort  out  of  thy  soul. 

'  Remember  how  universal  all  this  torment  shall  be.  Here  usually  our  pain 
is  but  in  one  part  of  the  body  ;  and  yet  what  a  misery  it  is  to  all  the  rest  by 
sympathy  ;  but  then  soul  and  body  shall  be  filled  brimful;  the  guilt  of  all  thy 
sins  shall  be  laid  upon  thy  soul,  and  be  made  so  many  heaps  of  fuel ;  when  that 
tender  and  delicate  body  shall  have  all  its  beauty  blasted,  and  pride  consumed  ; 
when  the  flames  shall  have  no  respect  to  its  comeliness  ;  when  every  member's 
pain  shall  be  intolerable,  and  that  insupportable  misery  shall  spread  itself 
through  the  whole  man  ;  when  eyes,  ears,  hands,  feet,  heart,  and  all  shall  be 
tormented  in  that  flame. 

'  Consider  how  near  the  time  hastens,  when  all  this  comes  to  pass  upon  thee. 
Time  is  almost  gone  with  thee,  and  thou  standest  at  the  gate  of  eternity ;  and 
death  is  waiting  upon  thee,  to  transport  thee  away  to  the  place  of  all  thy  mise- 
ries. Shortly  thou  must  die,  and  it  will  be  but  a  moment  from  thence  to  hell. 
When  thou  hast  sinned  away  a  few  more  days,  watched  and  slept  out  a  few 
more  nights,  away  thou  goest  irrecoverably.  It  may  be  thou  dreamest  of  many 
days  to  come,  but,  thou  fool,  how  knowest  thou  but  thy  scul  may  be  called  for 
this  very  night ;  and  the  day  of  judgment  is  not  far  off. 

'  Sinner,  I  beseech  thee,  realize  the  truth  of  these  things.  Do  not  go  about 
to  dream  that  it  is  derogatory  to  God's  mercy,  and  nothing  but  a  vain  fable  to 
scare  children  out  of  their  wits  withal.  God  can  be  merciful,  though  he  make 
thee  miserable.  He  shall  have  monuments  enough  of  that  precious  attribute 
shining  like  stars  in  the  place  of  glory,  and  singing  eternal  hallelujahs  to  the 


224  MEMOIR   OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

iiad  been  put  under  the  constablerick  of  Eastham,  'should 
belong  unto  and  be  of  the  same  township  until  the  Court 
should  see  cause  otherwise  to  order.' 

Saukatucket  was  an  incorporated  plantation,  (but  without 
town  privileges, 'and  without  a  church,)  as  early  as  1640. 

Its  territory  comprised  the  present  towns  of  Harwich 
and  Brewster. 

Monamoy  was  a  plantation  unincorporated  until  1686. 
The  territory  of  this  plantation  is  now  comprised  within 
the  limits  of  the  town  of  Chatham. 

Paomet  comprehended  the  present  towns  of  Truro  and 
Provincetown. 

In  1646,  Eastham  was  incorporated.  The  proper  terri- 
tory of  the  ancient  town  is  now  comprised  in  the  present 
town  of  Eastham,  the  Indian  Nauset,  Welfleet,  called  by 
themPunnonkanit,  and  Orleans  (Naumskeket.)  In  1651, 
the  old  town  was  permanently  settled. 

BRIDGEWATER, 

The  territory  comprised  within  the  limits  of  the  ancient 
town  of  Bridgewater  before  the  later  divisions,  was  origi- 
nally granted  to  the  settlers  of  Duxbury,  of  which  town  it 
was  a  plantation.  The  first  order  of  Court  was  passed  in 
August,  1644. 

'  Upon  the  petition  of  Duxbury  men,  it  is  thought  good 
by  the  Court,  that  there  be  a  view  taken  of  the  lands  de- 
scribed by  them,  namely,  seven  miles  up  into  the  woods 

praise  of  him  that  redeemed  them;  though  to  exalt  the  power  of  his  justice,  he 
damn  sinners  heaps  upon  heaps.' 

Mr  Treat  was  the  eldest  of  twentyone  children.  He  was  educated  at  Har- 
vard College,  and  was  graduated  in  1669.  He  had  thirteen  children.  Fortu- 
nate in  his  ancestry,  he  was  no  less  so  in  his  posterity.  One  of  his  grand* 
children,  Robert  Treat  Paine,  was  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
His  great  grandson,  Robert  Treat  Paine,  junior,  was  the  celebrated  poet. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

from  Plymouth  bounds  at  Jones'  river,  and  if  it  prove  not 
prejudicial  to  the  plantation  to  be  erected  at  Teightaquid, 
nor  to  the  meadows  of  Plymouth  at  Winngtuckquett,  it 
may  be  confirmed  unto  them ;  provided  also  the  herring 
or  alewife  river  at  Namassachusett  shall  be  equally  be- 
tween the  two  towns  of  Duxbury  and  Marshfield.' 

In  1645,  the  grant  was  made. 

'  The  inhabitants  of  the  town  of  Duxbury  are  granted  a 
competent  proportion  of  lands  about  Saughtucket,  towards 
the  west  for  a  plantation  to  them,  and  to  have  it  four  miles 
every  way  from  the  place  where  they  shall  set  up  their 
centre  ;  provided  it  entrench  not  upon  Winnytukquett, 
formerly  granted  to  Plymouth.  And  we  have  nominated 
Captain  Miles  Standish,  Mr  John  Alden,  George  Soule, 
Constant  Southworth,  Joseph  Rogers,  and  William  Brett, 
to  be  feofees  in  trust  for  the  equal  dividing  and  laying 
forth  the  said  lands  to  the  inhabitants.' 

'  The  whole  number  of  the  inhabitants  entitled  to  this 
grant  was  fiftyfour,'  and  the  territory  was  divided  into 
fiftyfour  shares,  and  two  were  added  for  the  minister  and 
the  miller. 

The  names  of  the  inhabitants  of  Duxbury,  and  pro- 
prietors of  Bridgewater  are  given  in  the  account  of  Dux- 
bury, with  the  exception  of  the  minister,  who  came  from 
Scotland,  and  the  miller  Samuel  Edson,  who  came  from 
Salem. 

The  aboriginal  title  was  afterwards  extinguished,  March 
23d,  1649,  by  a  deed  from  Ossamequin  or  Massasoiet.  The 
contract  was  executed  on  a  small  hill  within  the  limits  of 
East  Bridgewater.* 

*  The  following  is  a  transcript  of  the  deed  and  contract. 

•  Witness  these  presents,  that  I  Ousamequin,  sachem  of  the  contrie  of  Poca- 
nauket,  have  given,  granted,  enfeofed,  andsould  untoMyles  Standish,  of  Dux- 
borough,  Samuel  Nash,  and  Constant  Southworth  of  Duxborough  aforesaid,  in 

PART    II.  29 


225 


226  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

The  inhabitants  afterwards  discovered  a  large  tract  of 
meadow  land  called  Hockomock,  lying  westward  towards 
Taunton,  which  induced  them  to  apply  to  the  Court  for  a 
grant,  and  for  leave  to  move  the  centre  towards  the  west, 
so  as  to  include  it,  and  after  a  committee  from  the  Court 
had  reported  upon  the  expediency,  in  1662,  the  Court 
granted  it  in  the  following  words  :  '  In  answer  to  a  petition 
preferred  to  the  Court  by  Bridgewater,  it  is  agreed  that 
the  meadow  land  lying  northward  and  westward  from  the 
centre  within  seven  miles  is  inclusive.' 

By  the  leave  of  the  Court  they  afterwards  removed  their 
centre  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  place  where  it  was  first 
established,  and  established  a  large  oak  tree  for  the  mon- 
ument, and  so  included  the  lands  of  Hockomock. 

the  behalf  of  all  ye  townsmen  of  Duxborough  aforesaid,  a  tract  of  land  usually 
called  Saughtucket,  extending  in  length  andN:he  breadth  thereof,  as  followeth, 
that  is  to  say,  from  the  weare  att  Saughtuckett  seven  miles  due  east,  and  from 
the  said  weare  seven  (miles)  due  west,  and  from  the  said  weare  seven  niiles 
due  north,  and  from  the  said  weare,  seven  myles  due  south ;  the  wch  tract  the 
said  Ossamequin  hath  given,  granted,  enfeofed,  and  sould  unto  the  said  Myles 
(Standish)  Samuel  Nash,  and  Constant  Southworth  in  ye.  behalfe  of  all  the 
'  townsmen  of  Duxborough  as  aforesaid,  wth  all  the  emunityes,  privileges,  and 
profits  whatsoever,  belonging  to  the  said  tract  of  land,  wth  all  and  singular  all 
woods,  underwoods,  lands,  meadowes,  rivers,  brooks,  rivelets,  &,c,  to  have  and 
to  hould  to  the  said  Myles  Standish,  Samuel  Nash,  and  Constant  Southworth,  in 
behalfe  of  all  the  townsmen  of  the  towne  of  Duxborough,  to  them  and  their 
heyers  forever.  In  witness  whereof,  I  the  said  Ousamequin,  have  hereunto  set 
my  hand  this  23d  of  March,  1649. 

'  The  mk  of        [J^-^        Ousamequin*' 

'  In  consideration  of  the  above  bargain  and  sale,  we  the  said  Miles  Standish, 

Samuel  Nash,  and  Constant  Southworth,  doe  bind  ourselves  to  pay  unto  the  said 

Ousamequin,  for  and  in  consideration  of  ye.  said  tract  of  land,  as  followeth  : 

Seven  coats,  a  yd  and  half  in  coat. 

Nine  hatchets,  Myles  Standish, 

Eight  howes,  .  ,  .^^    , 

_,        ,    ,    .  r  Samuel  Nash, 

Twenty  knives,  • 

Forty  moose-skins,  1   Constant  Southworth. 

Ten  yds  and  half  of  cotton,  J 

This  deed  and  obligation  was  written  by  Standish. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  227 

The  Court  afterwards  enlarged  their  grant,  so  as  to 
extend  it  from  the  centre  six  miles  north,  if  the  line  be- 
tween the  colony  and  Massachusetts  did  not  intervene, 
and  on  the  west  to  Taunton,  (now  Raynham  and  Easton,) 
and  on  the  south  and  south-easterly  side  to  Titticut  river, 
as  far  as  the  six  miles  extended,  and  so  on  the  east  side. 
The  Indian  title  had  been  already  extinguished  seven 
miles  in  each  direction  from  the  centre,  but  the  Court 
granted  only  six,  and  were  careful  that  the  grant  to  Bridge- 
water  should  not  extend  itself  over  previous  grants.  They 
further  ordered  that  the  lands  between  Bridgewater  and 
Namasket,  (Middleborough)  '  already  granted,  shall  be 
determined  by  the  Court  unto  what  towns  they  shall 
belong ;  and  that  the  Indians  be  not  molested  ;  and  that 
they  be  careful  to  provide  a  competency  of  land  for  Mr 
Keith,'  (the  minister.) 

In  all  the  grants,  a  reservation  of  lands  had  been  made 
to  the  Indians  of  Titiquet  plantation,  which  had  been 
granted  to  those  Indians  by  Chickatabut,  a  sachem  of 
Massachusetts,  who  lived  on  Neponsit  river.  Bridgewater 
was  afterwards  allowed  to  purchase  all  the  Indian  lands 
which  lay  on  the  north  of  the  river,  and  within  the  bound- 
aries of  their  township,  which  was  done  November  20th, 
1672.  Pomponoko,  the  Titiquet  chief,  having  executed  a 
deed  for  that  purpose  to  Elder  Brett,  Mr  Nicholas  Byram, 
and  Samuel  Edson,  a  committee  appointed  by  the  Court, 
excepting  two  parcels,  one  containing  one  hundred  acres, 
and  the  other  ten,  which  was  reserved  to  an  Indian  who 
was  called  Charles.  The  consideration  was  £16.  The 
two  reserved  lots  were  afterwards  purchased  by  individuals 
of  Charles.  The  various  grants  were  confirmed  in  1686, 
and  on  the  23d  of  December  in  the  same  year,  they  were 
also  confirmed  by  a  deed  from  Josiah,  son  of  Josiah  Wam- 
patuck,  an  Indian  sachem  living  at  Matakeset,  (Pembroke) 


228  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

in  consideration  of  £10,  and  one  hundred  acres  of  land, 
which  land  was  afterwards  purchased  by  individuals. 
The  land  was  purchased  twice  over,  once  of  Josiah,  and 
once  of  Massasoiet  or  Ousamequin. 

The  first  four  mile  grant  was  never  allotted  or  divided, 
but  was  taken  up  according  to  the  rule  of  those  days,* 
but  the  two  mile  grant,  and  the  purchase  from  Pomponoko 
was  divided.  In  the  northeast  part  of  the  town  there  was 
a  large  gore  of  land  not  included  in  any  of  the  grants 
called  the  Howards'  farms,  but  was  considered  as  belong- 
ing to  Massachusetts,  although  south  of  the  province  line, 
and  were  purchased  from  that  province,  but  were  not  in- 
cluded in  any  town  until  1730,  when  it  was  annexed  to 
Bridgewater. 

These  several  grants  comprised  a  territory  which  now 
constitutes  a  large  part  of  the  town  of  Abington,  and  a 
small  part  of  Pembroke,  (now  Hanson)  and  the  entire 
towns  of  West  Bridgewater,  North  Bridgewater,  East 
Bridgewater,  and  Bridgewater. 

The  first  settlement  commenced  in  1651,  on  the  river  in 
West  Bridgewater.  Each  settler  had  a  lot  of  six  acres  on 
the  Nunketest  or  Nunketetest  river.  The  settlement  was 
called  by  this  name,  although  the  plantation  bore  the  name 
of  Sautucket.  The  settlement  was  compact  and  \he  houses 
near  together. f 

*  '  The  proprietors  had  their  meetings,  officers,  and  records,  distinct  from  the 
town,  and  were  accustomed  from  time  to  time  to  make  grants  of  a  certain  num- 
ber of  acres  from  five  to  twenty,  which  each  proprietor  had  a  right  to  pitch 
and  call  on  the  committee  to  lay  out  for  him  ;  which  being  done,  and  a  return 
of  the  survey  made  and  entered  on  their  books,  created  a  perfect  title  in  such 
proprietor.  Any  person  not  a  proprietor,  finding  common  land,  might  purchase 
a  right  of  any  one  who  had  not  taken  up  his  full  quantity  upon  any  of  the 
grants  then  existing,  and  procure  to  himself  a  title  to  it  in  the  same  manner.' 

]  The  first  permanent  settlers  were  Thomas  Hayward,  who  died  in  1681^ 
John  Hayward,  Nathaniel  Willis,  John  Willis,  William  Bassett,  John  Wash- 
burn, who  died  in  1679,  John  Washburn,  junior,  Thomas  Gannett,  William 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  229 

In  1656,  the  plantation  was  incorporated,  and  then 
received  the  name  of  Bridgevvater. 

The  taxes  which  had  been  paid  by  Duxborough  and 
this  appendage,  were  divided,  and  Bridgewater  paid  one 
third. 

The  town  was  organised  in  1657.  John  Willis  was 
elected  the  first  deputy  to  the  Court,  and  was  appointed 
the  first  magistrate.  In  1661,  William  Brett  was  elected 
a  deputy,  and  continued  to  1676. 

The  settlement  extended  southerly,  and  the  principal 
intercourse  of  the  settlers  was  with  the  people  of  Taunton. 

The  east  part  of  the  town  was  not  settled  until  1685. 

The  first  death  was  that  of  Thomas  Gannett,  in  1655. 

No  regular  church  was  formed  until  1664,  when  James 
Keith,  a  native  of  Scotland,  educated  at  Aberdeen,  was 
ordained  the  first  pastor.  He  came  to  Bridgevvater  in 
1662,  and  was  zealously  patronised  by  Dr  Increase  Mather 
of  Boston.  He  lived  in  perfect  harmony  with  his  people 
until  his  death,  which  happened  on  the  23d  of  July,  1719, 
at  the  age  of  seventysix.     His  posterity  are  numerous. 

MIDDLEBOROUGH. 

Although  Namasket  (the  Indian  name  of  this  town,) 
was  near  to  Plymouth,  yet  the  continuance  of  the  Indians 
on  its  soil,  prevented  its  settlement   by  the  English   for 

Brett,  John  Cary,  Samuel  Tompkins,  Arthur  Harris,  John  Fobes,  Experience 
Mitchell,  Solomon  Leonardson,  the  Reverend  James  Keith,  and  Samuel  Edson, 
who  died  in  1692. 

William  Bassett  came  over  in  the  second  ship,  Fortune,  in  1621 ;  he  died  in 
1667,  leaving  a  numerous  posterity.  Experience  Mitchell  came  in  the  Anne  in 
1623,  and  died  in  1689,  leaving  a  very  numerous  posterity ;  his  descendants  are 
spread  over  the  United  States. 

Nicholas  Byram,  Thomas  Whitman,  Joseph  Shaw,  and  John  Kingman,  were 
amongst  the  earlier  settlers  from  Weymouth.  Jonathan  Hill  from  Dorchester, 
John  Field  from  Providence,  Samuel  Packard,  Isaac  Lazell,  William  Hudson, 
and  Isaac  Johnson,  from  Hingham,  and  David  Perkins,  from  Beverly. 


230  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

many  years,  while  in  places  more  remote,  destitute  of  an 
Indian  population,  flourishing  towns  had  grown  up,  which 
were  filled  with  a  thriving  English  population. 

This  town,  now  the  largest  in  the  commonwealth  in 
territorial  extent,  has  remained  but  little  changed,  and 
still  includes  nearly  the  same  territory  which  was  com- 
prised  in  the  original  grant. 

On  the  10th  of  June,  162],  it  was  explored  by  Edward 
Winslow  and  Stephen  Hopkins,  then  journeying  to  visit 
Massasoiet.  At  the  distance  of  fifteen  miles  from  Ply- 
mouth they  found  Namasket,  a  considerable  Indian  village, 
near  a  river  of  the  same  name,  and  a  few  miles  farther 
north,  at  the  confluence  of  this  river  with  another,  they 
found  a  fishing  place  called  Titicut,  Tettiquet,  Tetaquid, 
and  here  the  united  rivers  took  that  name. 

The  settlement  commenced  near  Namasket,  and  in  1660, 
it  was  incorporated  as  a  town,  and  received  its  English 
name.  All  the  early  settlers  were  from  Plymouth.  At 
the  commencement  of  the  Indian  war  in  1675  no  church 
had  been  gathered,  and  no  pastor  ofiiciated.  All  the 
families,  being  sixteen  in  number,  abandoned  the  settle- 
ment, and  together  with  the  friendly  Indians  retired  to 
Plymouth. 

• 

DARTMOUTH. 

The  territory  of  the  ancient  town  of  Dartmouth,  com- 
prehended the  present  towns  of  Dartmouth,  New  Bedford, 
Westport,  and  Fairhaven. 

Captain  Bartholomew  Gosnold  in  1602,  named  a  round 
hill  in  the  present  town  of  Dartmouth,  between  the  rivers 
Apooneganset  and  Pascamanset,  Hap's  Hill,  and  discovered 
two  good  harbors,  which  fall  within  the  limits  of  the  same 
town,  being  Apooneganset  and  Pascamanset.  Gosnold 
and  some  of  his  men  made  a  slight  examination  of  the 
country. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  231 

Many  years  had  elapsed  after  the  settlement  of  Ply- 
mouth, before  any  progress  was  made -by  settlers  in  this 
direction. 

Anthony  Slocum  and  Ralph  Russell,  two  of  the  early 
settlers  of  Taunton,  were  early  settlers  in  Dartmouth. 
Some  went  from  Plymouth,  and  some  from  Duxbury. 

Dartmouth  was  thus  described  in  the  original  grant. 
'  A  tract  or  tracts  of  land  known  by  the  name  of  Accush- 
ena,  alias  Aquset,  entering  in  at  the  western  end  of  Nakata, 
and  to  the  river  Cookset,  alias  Ackees,  and  places  adjacent, 
the  bounds  of  which  tract  fully  extend  three  miles  to  the 
eastward  of  the  most  easterly  part  of  the  river  or  bay 
Accushenah  aforesaid,  and  so  along  the  sea-side  to  the 
river  called  Cookset  lying  on  the  west  side  of  Point  Pirril, 
and  to  the  most  westermost  side  of  any  branch  of  the 
aforesaid  river,  and  extending  eight  miles  into  the  woods 
with  all  marshes,  meadows,  rivers,  waters,  woods,  and 
appurtenances  thereto  belonging.' 

SWANSEY.* 

The  ancient  town  of  Swansey  comprised  within  its 
limits  the  present  town,  and  Somerset  in  Massachusetts, 
and  Barrington,  and  the  greater  part  of  Warren,  in  Rhode 
Island.  Nearly  all  this  territory  was  gained  from  the 
Indians  by  purchase,  and  confirmed  by  the  General  Court 
of  Plymouth  by  grant.  Bristol  in  Rhode  Island  was  con- 
quered, but  if  the  construction  of  the  Commissioners  of 

*  The  modern  orthography  is  used,  but  it  is  evidently  erroneous,  and  it  is  to 
be  wished  that  the  ancient  spelling  may  be  restored.  This  town  received  its 
name  originally  from  Swansea  in  Wales.  In  the  earliest  records  it  is  written 
Swansea.  The  name  was  first  corrupted  into  Swanzey,'and  then  into  Swan- 
sey, but  Swansea  is  its  corporate  name,  and  by  the  common  consent  of  the 
inhabitants,  it  might  be  restored  to  common  use. 


232  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

the  United  Colonies  be  correct,  Swansey  might  have 
claimed  Bristol  as  within  its  corporate  limits,  or  at  least 
might  have  divided  the  claim  with  Rehoboth,  for  the 
Commissioners  at  a  meeting  holden  at  Boston,  August 
25th,  1679,  declare,  '  that  the  lands  of  Mount  Hope 
are  indubitably  within  the  limits  of  his  Majesty's  colony 
of  New  Plymouth,  contained  within  the  express  limits 
of  his  royal  charter,  and  therein  granted,  and  are  within 
the  bounds  of  an  English  town  of  that  colony  planted 
by  them  near  twenty  years  since,  called  Seacunke,  and 
Swansey  ;'  but  the  municipal  government  of  Swansey  was 
never  exercised  over  the  lands  of  Mount  Hope. 

Winslow  and  Hopkins  on  their  journey  to  visit  Sowams 
in  1621,  passed  through  this  territory  and  found  an  Indian 
town  within  its  limits,  near  the  residence  of  Massasoiet. 

In  the  spring  of  1623,  Winslow  with  the  celebrated 
John  Hampden  again  visited  IMassasoiet,  but  pursued  a 
different  route  and  crossed  the  river  at  an  Indian  ferry,  (at 
or  near  Slade's  ferry.)  They  were  most  hospitably  enter- 
tained by  Corbitant,  the  sachem  of  the  Pocassets,  who 
dwelt  at  Metapoiset  (now  Gardner's)  neck.  The  residence 
of  Massasoiet  (as  they  describe  it,)  was  at  a  place  distant 
six  miles  called  Pokanoket,  or  Pocanokick.  A  part  of 
Swansey  and  Tiverton  was  included  in  the  Pocasset 
country,  which  was  immediately  governed  by  Corbitant, 
but  Massasoiet  was  his  superior  sachem. 

The  territory  had  escaped  the  general  pestilence  of 
1612,  and  was  tolerably  well  peopled  with  Indians. 

English  settlers  were  here  as  early  as  1632,  for  in  that 
year  Massasoiet  fled  to  secure  himself  against  the  Narra- 
gansetts,  '  to  an  English  house  at  Sowams,'  where  three 
Englishmen  resided. 

There  is  a  record  of  the  names  of  those  who  by  order 
and  agreement  of  the  purchasers  met  at  Plymouth  to  make 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  233 

purchase  and  division  of  the  lands,  '  as  are  at  Sowampsett 
and  Metapoiset  the  7th  of  March,  1652,  who  are  to  have 
their  several  parts  or  moieties  laid  out  at  the  places  above 
expressed,  and  are  to  make  and  satisfy  the  purchase  and 
all  other  charges  arising  thereupon,  according  to  their 
several  proportions.' 

'  Mr  William  Bradford  one  moiety,  Thomas  Prence  one 
half  part,  Edward  Winslow  all  his  portion.  Captain  Myles 
Standish  his  half  part,  Thomas  Willett  his  part,  Mr  White 
his  part,  Mr  Cushman  his  part,  John  Winslow  all  his  part, 
John  Adams  his  whole  proportion,  Experience  Mitchell 
his  half  part,  Thomas  Clarke  his  half  part.' 

In  1653  a  conveyance  was  made  of  certain  lands  by 
Massasoiet,  (who  had  assumed  the  name  of  Ossamequin,) 
and  his  son  Wamsetto,  by  a  deed  expressing  that  '  in  con- 
sideration of  <£35  in  hand,  paid  to  the  said  Ossamequin 
and  Wamsetto  by  Thomas  Prence,  Gent.,  Thomas  Willett, 
Gent.,  Myles  Standish,  Gent.,  and  Josias  Winslow,  Gent., 
for  and  in  behalf  of  themselves  and  divers  others  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Plymouth  jurisdiction,  whose  names  are 
hereafter  specified,'  they  had  granted  to  tlie  abovenamed 
persons  agents  for  themselves,  and  William  Bradford, 
senior,  Thomas  Clarke,  John  Winslow,  Thomas  Cushman, 
William  White,  John  Adams,  and  Experience  Mitchell, 
their  heirs,  &c,  '  all  those  several  parcels  and  necks  of 
upland,  swamps,  and  meadows,  lying  and  being  on  the 
southerly  side  of  the  Seakunk,  alias  Rehoboth  bounds, 
and  is  bounded  from  a  little  brook  of  water  called  by  the 
Indians  Masskettuash  westerly,  and  so  ranging  by  a  dead 
swamp  eastward,  and  so  by  marked  trees,  (as  Ossamequin 
and  Wamsetto  directed,)  unto  the  great  river,  with  all  the 
meadow  in  and  about  the  sides  of  both  the  branches 
of  the  great  river,  with  all  the  creeks  and  brooks  that 
are  in  and   upon   any  of  the  said  meadows,'  as   also  all 

PART    II.  30 


234  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

the  marsh  meadow  lying  and  being  without  the  bounds 
beforementioned,  in  or  about  the  neck  called  by  the 
Indians  Chachucust. —  Also  all  the  meadow  of  any  kind 
lying  or  being  at  or  about  Poppesquash  neck ;  as  also 
all  the  meadow  lying  from  the  bay  to  Kickamuet  on 
both  sides,  or  any  way  joining  to  it  or  the  bay  on  each 
side,  to  have  and  to  hold,  &c.  And  Ossamequin  and 
Wamsetto  further  did  '  covenant,  promise,  and  grant  that 
whensoever  the  Indians  shall  remove  from  the  neck,  that 
then  and  from  thenceforth,  the  aforesaid  Thomas  Prence, 
Thomas  Willett,  Myles  Standish,  and  Josias  Winslow, 
shall  enter  upon  the  same,  by  the  same  agreement  as  their 
proper  right  and  interest  to  them,  their  heirs  and  assigns  for- 
ever.' This  deed  was  dated  March  29th,  1653,  and  witness- 
ed by  John  Browne,  James  Browne,  and  Richard  Garratt. 

In  this  same  year  it  appears  that  large  purchases  were 
made  of  the  Indians  within  the  territory,  afterwards  Swan- 
sey,  by  Thomas  Willett  and  Nathaniel  Paine. 

Metapoiset  neck  was  conveyed  by  '  Philip,  alias  Puma- 
tarkeam,  chief  sachem  of  Mount  Hope,  Cossumpsett,  and 
all  the  territories  thereunto  belonging,'  to  William  Bren- 
ton,  Esq.,  of  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  by  deed  dated 
June  23d,  1664.*  Philip  also  covenanted  with  Mr  Brenton, 
'  that  if  ever  the  lands  next  adjacent  unto  this  neck  be 
sold,  he  should  have  the  refusal  on  equal  terms,'  and  also 
permitting  him  to  take  the  grass  on  Towooset  neck,  and 
giving  '  the  liberty  of  running  stock,'  there  '  from  the 
time  the  corn  is  gathered,  until  the  time  that  the  Indians 
yearly  plant.'     This  deed  was  also  signed  by  Wootomka- 

*  Mr  Brenton  devised  this  estate  in  his  will  to  his  son  Ebenezer,  who  con- 
veyed it  in  1693  for  £1700  to  Samuel  Gardner  and  Ralph  Chapman.  It  is  now 
called  Gardner's  neck,  and  is  situated  between  the  Showamet  and  Towooset 
necks.  Mr  Brenton  removed  to  Taunton,  and  did  not  occupy  this  noble  estate 
until  after  the  Indian  war. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  235 

iinske,  and  was  witnessed  by  eight  Indians,  and  acknow- 
ledged June  4th,  1668. 

In  1667,  Constant  Southworth,  Captain  James  Cudworth, 
Josias  Winslow,  Hugh  Cole,  John  Tisdale,  Nathaniel 
Turner,  Walter  Hatch,  John  Sutton,  William  Randall, 
John  Damon,  George  Watson,  Nathaniel  Morton,  Ralph 
Thacher,  Joseph  Chandler,  Benjamin  Bartlett^  Henry 
Howland,  Nathaniel  Brewster,  Kenelm  Winslow,  John 
Bourne,  Job  Winslow,  Christopher  Wadsworth,  all  inhabit-  t>-^.  ^.  li-^'^ 
ants  of  the  colony  of  New  Plymouth  ;  and  Timothy  Fos- 
ter and  Richard  More  of  Massachusetts,  jn  consideration 
of  £35  conveyed  to  Mr  Brenton,  all  the  marsh  and  meadow 
land  at  Metapoiset. 

^  Philip  conveyed  to  Constant  Southworth,  Josias  Wins- 
low, Hugh  Cole,  James  Cudworth,  and  John  Coggeshall, 
'  five  hundred  acres  of  land,  more  or  less,  beginning  at  a 
great  rock  close  by  the  path  in  the  middle  of  the  brook 
ramed  Wequataquest,  north,  one  mile  west-northwest  to 
brook,  to  Willett's  land  at  the  head  of  Metapoiset,  to  a 
creek,  and  by  it  to  the  brook.  This  deed  v/as  signed  by 
Philip  and  Cashonwashed.  /        •        c 

Early  in   1667,  the  General  Court  passed   the   follow- 
ing order,  called  '  the  grant  of  New  Swansea.' 

'  Whereas,  liberty  hath  been  formerly  granted  by  the 
Court  for  the  jurisdiction  of  New  Plymouth  unto  Captain 
Thomas  Willett  and  his  neighbors  at  Wannamoisett,  to 
become  a  township  there  if  they  should  see  good,  and 
that  lately  the  said  Captain  Willett  and  Mr  Myles  and 
others  their  neighbors,  have  requested  of  the  Court  that 
they  may  become  a  township  there  or  near  thereabout, 
and  likewise  to  have  granted  unto  them  such  parcels  of  ^ 
land  as  might  be  accommodating  thereunto,  not  disposed 
of  to  other  townships  ;  this  Court  have  granted  unto 
them  all  such  lands  that  lyeth  between  the  salt  water  bay 


236  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

and  coming  up  Taunton  river,  viz.  all  the  land  between 
the  sak  water  and  river  and  the  bounds  of  Taunton  and 
Rehoboth,  not  prejudicing  any  man's  particular  interest ; 
and  forasmuch  as  Rehoboth  hath  meadow  land  within  the 
line  of  Wannamoisett,  and  Wannamoisett  hath  lands 
within  the  line  of  Rehoboth,  lying  near  the  south  line  of 
Rehoboth,  if  the  two  townships  cannot  agree  about  them 
amongst  themselves,  the  Court  reserves  it  within  their 
power  to  determine  any  such  controversy.' 

1667,  March.  The  Courthave  appointed  Captain  Thomas 
Willelt,  Mr  Paine  senior,  Mr  Browne,  John  Allen,  and  John 
Butterworth,  to  have  the  trust  of  admittance  of  town  in- 
habitants into  the  said  town,  and  to  have  the  disposal  of 
the  land  therein,  and  ordering  other  the  affairs  of  said 
town.' 

'  The  Court  do  allow  and  approve  that  the  township 
granted  unto  Captain  Thomas  Willett  and  others  his 
neighbors  at  Wannamoisett  and  parts  adjacent,  shall 
henceforth  be  called  and  known  by  the  name  of  Swansey.' 

The  lands  at  Wannamoisett  had  been  granted  to  Mr 
John  Browne  by  the  town  of  Rehoboth,  and  the  settlers 
there  acted  in  all  town  proceedings  with  the  people  of 
Rehoboth,  although  it  was  not  considered  as  being  within 
the  corporate  limits,  but  rather  in  the  character  of  a  sepa- 
rate plantation. 

'  Whereas,  Captain  Thomas  Willett  shortly  after  the 
grant  of  this  township,  made  the  following  proposals  unto 
those  who  were  with  him,  and  by  the  Court  at  Plymouth 
empowered  for  the  admission  of  inhabitants  and  granting 
of  lots,  viz. 

'  1.  That  no  erroneous  person  be    admitted  into   the 
township  either  as  an  inhabitant  or  sojourner. 

'  2.  That  no  man  of  any  evil  behaviour  as  contentious 
persons,  &c,  be  admitted. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  237 

'  3.  That  none  may  be  admitted  that  may  become  a 
charge  to  the  place. 

'  The  church  of  Christ  here  gathered  and  assembling, 
did  thereupon  make  the  following  address  unto  the  said 
Captain  Willett  and  his  associates  the  trustees  aforesaid, 
(torn  off)  being  with  you  engaged,  (according  to 
our  capacity,)  in  the  carrying  on  of  a  township  according 
to  the  grant  given  us  by  the  honored  Court,  and  desiring 
to  lay  such  a  foundation  thereof  as  may  effectually  tend 
to  God's  glory,  our  future  peace  and  comfort,  and  the  real 
benefit  of  such  as  shall  hereafter  join  with  us  herein,  as  also 
to  prevent  all  future  jealousies  and  causes  of  dissatisfac- 
tion or  disturbances  in  so  good  a  work,  do  in  relation  to 
the  three  proposals  made  by  our  much  honored  Captain 
Willett,  humbly  present  to  your  serious  consideration, 
(before  we  further  proceed  therein,)  that  the  said  propo- 
sals may  be  consented  to  and  subscribed  by  all  and  every 
townsman  under  the  following  explications. 

*  That  the  first  proposal  relating  to  the  non-admission  of 
erroneous  persons  may  be  only  understood  under  the  ex- 
plications following,  viz.  of  such  damnable  heresies  incon- 
sistent with  the  faith  of  the  gospel,  as  to  deny  the  Trinity 
or  any  person  there  ;  the  Deity  or  sinless  humanity  of 
Christ,  or  the  union  of  both  natures  in  him,  or  his  full 
satisfaction  to  the  divine  justice  by  his  active  and  passive 
obedience  for  all  his  elect,  or  his  resurrection,  ascension 
to  heaven,  intercession,  or  his  second  personal  coming  to 
judgment ;  or  else  to  deny  the  truth  or  divine  authority 
of  any  part  of  canonical  scripture,  or  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead,  or  to  maintain  any  merit  of  works,  consubstan- 
tiation,  transubstantiation,  giving  divine  adoration  to  any 
creature,  or  any  other  antichristian  doctrine,  thereby  di- 
rectly opposing  the  priestly,  prophetical  or  kingly  office 
of  Christ  or  any  part  thereof. 


238  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

'  Or  secondly,  of  such  as  hold  such  opinions  as  are  incon- 
sistent with  the  well  being  of  the  place,  as  to  deny  the 
magistrate's  power  to  punish  evil  doers  as  well  as  to  en- 
courage those  that  do  well,  or  to  deny  the  first  day  of  the 
week  to  be  observed  by  divine  institution  as  the  Lord's 
or  christian  sabbath,  or  to  deny  the  giving  of  honor  to 
whom  honor  is  due,  or  to  oppose  those  civil  respects  that 
are  usually  performed  according  to  the  laudable  cus- 
tom of  our  nation  each  to  other  as  bowing  the  knee  or 
body,  &c. 

'  Or  else,  to  deny  the  office,  use,  or  authority  of  the 
ministry,  or  a  comfortable  maintenance  to  be  due  to  them 
from  such  as  partake  of  the  teaching,  or  to  speak  reproach- 
fully of  any  of  the  churches  of  Christ  in  the  country,  or 
of  any  such  other  churches  as  are  of  the  same  common 
faith  with  us  and  them. 

'  We  desire  that  it  be  also  understood  and  declared,  that 
this  is  not  understood  of  any  holding  any  opinion  different 
from  others  in  any  disputable  point  yet  in  controversy 
among  the  godly  learned,  the  belief  thereof  being  not 
essentially  necessary  to  salvation,  such  as  psedo-baptism, 
anti-psedo-baptism,  church  discipline,  or  the  like,  but  that 
the  minister  or  ministers  of  the  said  town  may  take  their 
liberty  to  baptise  infants  or  grown  persons  as  the  Lord 
shall  persuade  their  consciences,  and  so  also  the'inhabit- 
ants  to  take  their  liberty  to  bring  their  children  to  bap- 
tism or  forbear. 

'  That  the  second  proposal  relating  to  the  known  recep- 
tion of  any  evil  behaviour  such  as  contentious  persons, 
&c,  may  be  only  understood  of  those  truly  so  called,  and 
not  of  those  who  are  different  in  judgment  in  the  particu- 
lars last  mentioned,  and  may  not  be  therefore  accounted 
contentious  by  some  though  they  are  in  all  fundamentals 
of  faith,  orthodox  in  judgment,  and  excepting  common  in- 
firmities, blameless  in  conversation. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  239 

'  That  the  proposal  relating  to  the  non-admission  of  such 
as  may  become  a  charge  to  the  town,  be  only  understood 
so  as  that  it  may  not  hinder  any  godly  man  from  coming 
among  us  whilst  there  is  accommodation  that  may  satisfy 
him,  if  some  responsible  townsman  will  be  bound  to  save 
the  town  harmless. 

'  These  humble  tenders  of  our  desires,  we  hope  you  will 
without  offence  receive,  excusing  us  herein,  considering 
that  Gcd's  glory,  the  future  peace  and  well  being,  not 
only  of  us  and  of  our  posterity  who  shall  settle  here,  but 
also  of  those  several  good  and  peaceable  minded  men 
whom  you  already  know  are  like,  though  with  very  incon- 
siderable outward  accommodation  to  come  amongst  us, 
are  very  much  concerned  herein  ;  our  humble  prayers  both 
for  ourselves  and  you  is  that  our  God  would  be  pleased  to 
cause  us  to  aim  more  and  more  at  his  glory  and  less  at 
our  own  earthly  concernment,  that  so  we  may  improve 
the  favors  that  hath  been  handed  to  us  by  our  honored, 
nursing  fathers,  to  the  advancement  of  the  glory  of  God, 
the  interest  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  the  common 
benefit,  both  of  the  township  and  colony  where  he  hath 
providentially  disposed  of  us  to  serve  our  generation. 

'  Your  brethren  to  serve  you  in  Christ. 

'  Signed  on  the  behalf  and  in  the  name  of  the  church- 
meeting  at  Swansey  by      .j„„^  j^i^^^^^  p.^tor, 

'  John  Butterworth.' 

The  foregoing  proposals  being  according  to  the  desire 
of  the  church  aforesaid,  fully  and  absolutely  condescended 
to,  concluded  and  agreed  upon  by  and  between  the  said 
Captain  Thomas  Willett  and  his  associates  aforesaid  and 
the  said  church,  under  the  reservation  and  explications 
abovewritten,  and  every  of  them,  it  was  sometime  after- 
ward propounded  at  a  meeting  of  the  said  town,  lawfully 


240  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

warned  on  the  two  and  twentieth  day  of  the  twelfth  month, 
1669,  that  the  said  agreement  might  be  by  the  whole  town 
ratified  and  confirmed,  and  settled  as  a  foundation  order 
to  which  all  that  then  were,  or  afterwards  should  be  ad- 
mitted inhabitants,  and  to  receive  lands  from  the  town, 
should  manifest  their  assent  by  subscription  thereunto, 
whereupon  the  following  order,  (the  said  Captain  Willett 
and  his  associates  aforesaid  being  present,)  was  freely 
passed  by  the  whole  town,  nemine  contradicente. 

At  a  town-meeting  lawfully  warned  on  the  two  and 
twentieth  day  of  the  twelfth  month,  commonly  called 
February,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1669,  it  is  ordered 
that  all  persons  that  are  or  shall  be  admitted  inhabit- 
ants within  this  town,  shall  subscribe  to  the  three  propo- 
sals abovewritten  ;  to  the  several  conditions  and  expla- 
nations therein  expressed,  before  any  lot  of  land  be  con- 
firmed to  them  or  to  any  of  them. 

'  We  whose  names  are  here  underwritten,  do  freely  upon 
our  admission  to  be  inhabitants  of  this  town  of  Swansey, 
assent  to  the  abovewritten  agreement,  made  between  the 
church  of  Christ  now  meeting  here  at  Swansey,  and  Captain 
Thomas  Willett  and  his  associates,  as  the  said  agreement 
is  specified  and  declared  in  the  three  proposals  afore- 
written,  with  the  several  conditions  and  explanations 
thereof,  concerning  the  present  and  future  settlement  of 
this  township.  In  witness  whereof,  we  have  hereunto 
subscribed. 

Thomas  Willett,  Caleb  Eddy, 

JohnMyles,  John  Myles,  junior, 

John  Allen,  Thomas  Lewis, 

James  Browne,  Joseph  Carpenter, 

Nicholas  Tanner,  Robert  Jones, 

Hugh  Cole,  Eldad  Kingsley, 

Benjamin  Alby,  John  Martin, 

John  Browne,  John  Cole, 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  241 

Samuel  Wheaton,  Joseph  Wheaton, 

Thomas  Barnes,  Nathaniel  Paine, 

Thomas  Estabrooke,  Stephen  Brace, 

Richard  Sharp,  Gideon  Allen, 

WiUiam  Ingraham,  John  Dickse, 

Thomas  Manning,  .  William  Bartram, 

William  Cahoone,  Joseph  Kent, 

George  Aldrich,  Samuel  Woodbury, 

Nathaniel  Lewis,  Nehemiah  Allen, 

John  Thurber,  Sampson  Mason, 

Jonathan  Bosworth,  Job  Winslow, 

Joseph  Lewis,  Obadiah  Bowen,  junior, 

William  Hayward,  Richard  Burges, 

John  Thurber,  John  Butterworth, 

Gerard  Ingraham,  John  West, 

Zachariah  Eddy,  Thomas  Elliot, 

Hezekiah  Luther,  Timothy  Brooks, 

John  Paddock,  Nathaniel  Toogood, 

Samuel  Luther,  Jeremiah  Child, 
Obadiah  Bowen,  senior. 

It  has  been  already  related  in  the  history  of  Rehoboth, 
that  Wannamoiset  (afterwards  included  generally  in 
Swansey)  was  granted  to  Mr  John  Browne,  an  eminent 
person  in  the  government  of  New  Plymouth.  Mr  Browne 
was  anxious  for  neighbors.  Captain  Willett,  also  a  magis- 
trate, a  man  of  great  ability  and  enterprise,  induced  in 
some  measure,  perhaps,  by  its  contiguity  to  Narragansett, 
to  which  country  he  had  large  claims,  went  to  Wannamoi- 
set; —  Hugh  Cole  and  some  others  followed. 

It  has  already  been  related,  that  the  Reverend  John 
Myles,  pastor  of  the  first  Baptist  church  in  Wales  at 
Swansea,  had  been  ejected  soon  after  the  restoration  of 
Charles  II.,  and  had  fled  to  America  with  some  of  the 
members  of  his  church,  about  the  year  1G62,  or  1663. 

While  an  inhabitant  of  Rehoboth,  he  had  been  punished 
for  contumacy.  But  the  disposition  of  the  government 
becoming  more  tolerant,  he  was  permitted  to  share  in  the 
grant  of  lands  at  Wannamoiset. 

PART  11.  31 


242  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

As  the  new  settlers  were  composed  of  those  whose 
religious  tenets  were  in  some  degree  variant,  Mr  Willet, 
anxious  to  prevent  future  controversy,  submitted  his  funda- 
mental propositions,  to  which  Mr  Myles  and  his  primeval 
Baptist  church  (preceding  all  others  in  Plymouth  and 
Massachusetts)  agreed,  under  explanations  ;  both  parties 
being  liberal  and  disinterested  and  anxious  for  the  settle- 
ment and  prosperity  of  the  new  town,  accommodated  their 
notions  to  their  circumstances,  and  discovered  how  easy  it 
was  to  reconcile  differences  merely  speculative,  without 
violating  even  the  scruples  of  conscience.  Mr  Myles 
declaring,  '  that  the  ministers  might  take  the  liberty  to 
baptise  infants  or  grown  persons  as  the  Lord  shall  per- 
suade their  consciences,  and  so  also  the  inhabitants  to  take 
their  liberty  to  bring  their  children  to  baptism,  or  forbear.' 
Captain  Willett  being  a  gentleman  of  excellent  sense 
and  practical  views,  and  Mr  Myles  an  enlightened,  learned 
and  tolerant  clergyman,  they  respected  each  others  opin- 
ions, and  soon  removed  the  minor  difficulties,  which  too 
often  embarrass  the  progress  of  useful  enterprises,  and 
came  with  their  friends  to  the  foregoing  agreement  unani- 
mously. 
•  Plymouth  has  been  implicated  in  the  general  accusation 

of  intolerance,  so  often  urged,  but  not  with  equal  justice, 
against  the  New  England  colonies.  The  first  schism  in 
Plymouth  was  occasioned  by  Obadiah  Holmes.  Holmes 
was  a  member  of  Mr  Newman's  church,  and  he  undertook, 
perhaps,  as  much  from  a  pragmatical  spirit  as  from  scru- 
ples of  conscience, .to  dissent  from  its  doctrines  and  disci- 
pline. He  did  not  embrace  the  principles  of  the  Ana- 
baptists until  some  time  after  his  secession  from  Mr 
Newman's  church.  It  does  not  appear  that  any  punish- 
•  ment  was  inflicted  on  Holmes  by  order  of  the  government 

of  Plymouth. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  243 

Myles  and  his  church  after  the  first  act  of  intolerance, 
when  neither  their  designs  nor  characters  were  understood, 
were  not  molested.  They  enjoyed  every  civil  and  religious 
privilege  in  common  with  the  other  inhabitants  of  the 
colony,  and  the  predominant  sect,  for  the  most  part,  wisely 
refrained  from  exercising  even  the  intolerance  of  opinion, 
and  repeatedly  elected  James  Browne,  a  member  of  the 
Baptist  church,  to  the  magistracy. 

If  the  proceedings  of  the  General  Court  occasionally 
exhibited  some  shades  of  intolerance,  yet  the  ancient  Bap- 
tist church  of  Swansey  is  a  permanent  monument  of  a  for- 
bearance and  tolerance  far  transcending  the  ordinary  lib- 
erality of  the  age.  The  pedple  undoubtedly  discriminated 
between  the  uneasy,  restless,  and  almost  seditious  spirit  of 
those  who  separated  from  the  established  churches,  and 
assumed  the  appellation  of  Baptists,  merely  to  conceal 
the  \>4orkings  of  a  spirit  impatient  of  discipline,  and  anx- 
ious to  dictate,  and  the  resolute  and  sincere  piety  of 
Myles  and  his  followers,  who  abandoned  their  homes  and 
their  all,  for  conscience'  sake. 

Captain  Willett  and  Mr  Myles  may  be  justly  denomi- 
nated the  fathers  of  Swansey.  After  the  surrender  of 
New  York,  Willett  became  its  first  English  mayor,  but 
even  this  first  of  city  distinctions  conferred  by  that  proud 
metropolis,  did  not  impart  more  real  honor  to  his  character 
than  the  address  and  good  feeling  manifested  by  him  in 
effecting  the  peaceable  settlement  of  the  humble  town  of 
Swansey.  He  died  about  the  year  1679.  Mr  Myles  died 
in  1683. 

February  12th,  1670.  It  was  voted  'to  prevent  the 
bringing  in  of  such  persons  to  be  inhabitants  as  may  be 
to  the  prejudice  of  the  town  ;  —  it  is  ordered  that  whoso- 
ever hath  taken  or  sliall  take  up  any  lot  therein  and  shall 
let  out,  give,  or  sell  the  same,  or  any  {)art  thereof,  to  any 


244  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

person  or  persons  whatsoever,  without  the  consent  of  the 
town,  or  at  least  of  the  committee  that  are  or  shall  be 
chosen  for  the  management  of  the  prudential  affairs  of 
the  town  at  any  time  hereafter  ;  then  the  person  or  persons 
that  shall  so  let  out,  give,  or  sell  as  aforesaid,  shall  forfeit 
their  whole  right  in  such  lot  and  buildings  thereon,  from 
them,  their  heirs  and  assigns,  to  the  use  of  the  town  for 
ever.' 

Many  of  the  settlers  of  Swansey,  it  will  be  perceived, 
had  been  inhabitants  of  Rehoboth. 

'  February  7th,  1670,  ([671.)  It  was  ordered  that  all  lots 
and  divisions  of  land  that  are  or  hereafter  shall  be  granted 
to  any  particular  person,  shall  be  proportioned  according 
to  the  three  ranks  and  written  so,  that  where  those  of  the 
first  rank  shall  have  three  acres,  those  of  the  second  rank 
shall  have  two  acres,  and  those  of  the  third  rank  shall 
have  one  acre,  and  that  it  shall  be  in  the  power  of  the 
selectmen  for  the  time  being,  or  committee  for  admission 
of  inhabitants,  to  admit  of,  and  place  such  as  shall  be 
received  as  inhabitants  into  either  of  the  said  ranks  as 
they  shall  judge  fit,  till  the  full  number  of  threescore 
such  inhabitants  shall  be  made  up,  and  that  when  the  said 
number  of  threescore  is  accomplished. 

'  The  said  first  rank  are  only  The  aboveaaid  second  rank  are  The  said  third  rank  are  only 
such  as  are  in  this  column.         only  such   as    are   in   this      such  as  are  in  this  column, 
column. 

Captain  Thomas  "Willett,  Samuel  Luther,  Hezekiah  Luther, 

Mr  Nathaniel  Paine,  Robert  Jones,  Joseph  Lewis, 

Mr  James  Browne,  Zachariah  Eddy,  Caleb  Eddy, 

Mr  John  Allen,  senior,  Hugh  Cole,  John  Paddock, 

John  Butterworth,  John  Myles,  junior,  Nathaniel  Lewis, 

Mr  John  Dickse,  Nicholas  Tanner,  Samuel  Wheaton, 

Mr  Richard  Sharp,  Benjamin  Alby,  Thomas  Manning, 

William  Ingraham,  Sampson  Mason,  William  Cahoone, 

Mr  John  Myles,  pastor,  Thomas  Barnes,  John  Martin, 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  245 

A  pastor's  lot,  John  Cole,  Isaac  Allen, 

A  teacher's  lot.  Joseph  Carpenter,  Eldad  Kinsley, 

Gerard  Ingraham,  Samuel  Woodbury, 

William  Howard,  Joseph  Wheaton, 

Gideon  Allen,  John  Wheaton, 

Thomas  Lewis,  John  Harding, 

Jonathan  Bosworth,  Jeremiah  Child.' 

Anthony  Low, 

Obadiah  Bowen, 

Thomas  Estabrook, 

William  Bartram, 

George  Aldrich, 

William  Salsbury, 

John  Browne, 

A  schoolmaster. 

This  division  of  the  people  into  ranks  presents  a  re- 
markable and  singular  feature  in  town  history.  It  existed 
nowhere  else  in  the  colony ;  fancy  can  almost  discern  in 
this  arrangement  the  rudiments  of  the  three  Roman  orders, 
Patrician,  Equestrian,  and  Plebeian.  This  power  was  as- 
sumed by  the  five  persons  appointed  by  the  Court  to  regu- 
late the  admission  of  town  inhabitants  in  1667,  and  after- 
wards was  exercised  by  committees  appointed  by  the 
town.  These  committees  seemed  to  have  exercised  the 
authority  of  censors,  and  have  degraded  and  promoted  from 
one   rank  to  another  at  discretion. 

In  1671,  John  Crabtree  was  permitted  to  occupy  six 
acres  of  land  for  the  present,  and  to  be  at  the  town's 
courtesy  in  relation  to  more  lands. 

In  1672,  Joseph  Wheaton  admitted  an  inhabitant  of 
the  third  rank. 

Job  Winslow  and  John  Lathrop  admitted  to  the  second 
rank. 

In  1673,  Hezekiah  Luther  was  promoted  from  the  third 
rank  to  the  second,  and  Gerard  Ingraham  by  his  own  con- 
sent degraded  from  the  second  to  the  third  rank. 


246  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

In  1679,  Jeremiah  Child  was  promoted  from  the  third 
to  the  second  rank. 

The  grant  to  Stephen  Brace  was  declared  utterly  void. 

In  1680,  Mr  John  Saffin  was  admitted  into  the  first 
rank. 

In  1673,  the  names  of  George  Aldrich,  Wm.  Salsbury, 
and  John  Harding  were  ordered  to  be  erased  from  the 
town  book  '  for  not  fulfilling  the  fundamental  order  of  the 
town.' 

In  1674,  John  Harding  was  ordered  to  leave   the   town. 

Richard  Burgess  was  placed  in  the  third  rank. 

In  1672,  'John  Clow  was  admitted  an  inhabitant,  if 
there  be  no  just  objection  for  his  removal. 

In  1674,  Dermit  Smith  and  Wm  Hammon  were  admitted 
inhabitants. 

This  power  of  ranking  the  inhabitants  was  of  a  character 
so  delicate,  that  it  created  great  dissatisfaction. 

In  1681,  Mr  James  Brown  senior,  Mr  John  Allen  senior, 
and  John  Butterworth,  were  the  committee  for  the  admis- 
sion of  inhabitants. 

They  granted  to  Capt.  John  Browne,  Ensign  Thomas 
Estabrooke,  Serjeant  Samuel  Luther,  Serjeant  Hugh  Cole, 
and  Mr  Nicholas  Tanner,  their  heirs  and  assigns  forever, 
'  the  full  right  and  interest  of  the  highest  rank,  &c.' 

This  act  of  the  committee  occasioned  a  unanimous 
protest  on  the  part  of  the  town  and  a  declaration  that  the 
act  was  '  utterly  void  and  of  no  efl'ect.' 

After  this  the  practice  seems  to  have  fallen  into  disuse. 

November  4,  1670,  persons  neglecting  to  attend  town- 
meetings  were  to  be  fined  4s. 

November  2,  1671.  First  rank  ordered  to  pay  £3  12s. 
second  rank,  £2  8s.  ;  third  rank,  £1   4s. 

October  17,  1672.  A  petition  was  ordered  to  be  pre- 
sented to  the  General  Court  '  for  the  obtaining  of  those 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  247 

lands  within  our  bounds  that  were  lately  bought  by  the 
inhabitants  of  Taunton  and  Mr  Constant  Southworth,' 
John  Allen  and  Hugh  Cole  the  agents;  James  Browne 
added 

November   1672.     Persons   neglecting  to  attend  town 
meetings  to  be  fined  2s.  6d. 

In  1673,  the  Toweset,  (Towooset  or  Coweset)  neck, 
was  conveyed  by  Isacke  and  Totonomocke  to  Nathaniel 
Paine,  and  afterwards  the  same  with  Ben  Allis  and  Peta- 
nonawett,  (Peter  Nanuit,)  conveyed  a  tract  it  is  believed, 
to  Capt.  Willett  and  Mr  Paine,  near  Metapoiset,  'bounded 
on  the  south  by  a  direct  line,  according  to  the  range  of 
the  south  line  in  said  town  of  Swansey's  land,  from  the 
southeast  corner  thereof  to  the  great  river,  and  thence 
along  the  river  to  the  commons,  and  so  two  full  miles  into 
the  wood,  everywhere  from  the  Taunton  river.  These 
are  the  first  conveyances  of  land  in  this  quarter  from  any 
Indians  other  than  Massasoiet  and  Philip,  and  such  as  they 
associated  with  themselves.  This  practice  of  buying 
from  the  common  Indians  without  the  permission  of  Philip, 
was  probably  the  cause  of  some  dissatisfaction  to  him, 
and  might  have  been  one  of  the  inducements  to  subse- 
quent hostilities.  In  his  letter  to  Governor  Prence  he 
says,  '  Philip  would  intreat  that  favor  of  you,  and  aney  of 
the  majestrats,  if  aney  English  or  Engians  speak  about 
aney  land,  he  preay  you  to  give  them  no  answer  at  all, 
This  last  summer  he  maid  promis  with  you,  that  he  wotdd 
not  sell  no  land  in  seven  years  time,  for  that  he  would 
have  no  English  trouble  him  before  that  time,  he  has  not 
forgot  that  you  promis  him.' 

It  would  seem  that  Toweset  was  purchased  for  the  town, 
for  at  a  town  meeting,  January  6,  1674,  it  was  voted  that 
it  should  be  left  '  for  a  perpetual  common  sheep  pasture, 
'  that  is  to  say,  after  the  rate  of  eighteen  acres  to  a  man 


248  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

of  the  highest  rank,  and  twelve  acres  to  a  man  of  the 
second  rank,  and  six  acres  to  a  man  of  the  lowest  rank  j 
and  it  is  further  ordered  that  no  man  who  hath  a  right  in 
this  foresaid  sheep  pasture  shall  sell  or  give  his  property 
therein  as  long  as  he  hath  any  lands  in  the  town  undis- 
posed of,  which  he  had  from  the  town,  by  virtue  of  grant 
from  the  town  as  being  in  one  of  the  three  ranks  accord- 
ing to  which  lands  are  granted.' 

1672.  Forty  acres  were  granted  to  Mr  Myles,  'pastor 
of  the  church.'  Pastor's  lot  and  teacher's  lot  to  be  laid 
out  with  the  immunities  of  the  highest  rank.  Schoolmas- 
ter's lot  to  be  laid  out  with  the  immunities  of  the  second 
rank. 

1673.  Granted  to  Mr  Myles  the  pastor,  all  the  town's 
right  in  the  swamp  adjoining  his  meadow. 

1674.  Two  lots  of  twelve  acres  each  were  laid  out  to 
a  pastor  and  teacher. 

At  a  town-meeting,  December  19,  1673,  'it  was  voted 
and  ordered,  nemine  contradicente,  that  a  school  be  forth- 
with set  up  in  this  town  for  the  teaching  of  grammar, 
rhetoric,  and  arithmetic,  and  the  tongues  of  Latin, 
Greek,  and  Hebrew,  also  to  read  English  and  to  write, 
and  that  the  salary  of  £40  per  annum  in  current  country 
pay,  which  passeth  from  man  to  man,  be  duly  paid  from 
time  to  time,  and  at  all  times  hereafter  to  the  schoolmaster 
thereof,  and  that  Mr  John  Myles,  the  present  pastor  of 
the  church  here  assembling,  be  schoolmaster,  otherwise  to 
have  power  to  dispose  the  same  to  an  able  schoolmaster 
during  the  said  pastor's  life,  and  from  and  after  his  de- 
cease that  the  school  and  salary  thereto  belonging  during 
their  respective  natural  lives  ;  provided,  nevertheless,  that 
the  said  school  and  forty  pounds  salary  aforesaid  shall  be 
continued  to  the  said  John  Myles  and  to  the  said  succes- 
sive pastors,  for,  and  during  such  time  as  he  or  they,  and 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  249 

any  and  every  of  them  shall  be  contented  to  take  their 
ministerial  maintenance  by  weekly  contribution  only  and 
no  longer.' 

'  It  is  further  ordered  that  the  said  school  shall  be  only 
free  to  such  children  whose  parents  pay  any  rates  towards 
the  said  school  and  to  none  other,  and  that  the  school- 
master and  successive  schoolmasters  thereof  for  the  time 
being  shall  have  liberty  to  take  in  any  other  scholars  they 
think  fit,  to  be  educated  there,  and  every  scholar  at  first 
entrance  shall  pay  twelve  pence  in  silver  towards  buying 
of  books  for  the  said  school.' 

May  19,  1675.  'Whereas  there  hath  been  a  former 
order  concluded  concerning  the  maintenance  of  a  free 
school,  and  to  give  encouragement  to  the  ministry  of  the 
church,  since  which  time  several  have  withdrawn  their 
part  of  payment  thereto,  some  objecting  against  the  school 
and  some  against  the  ministry,  now  it  is  voted  and  ordered 
to  be  understood  that  the  abovesaid  maintenance  shall  be 
for  both,  and  to  be  paid  in  beef,  pork,  or  provision,  as 
corn,  butter,  &c.'  j  ^-.v?.  ..vv^ 

From  the  settlement  of  the  towa  to  the  commencement 
of  the  Indian  war,   the  selectmen  were  James   Brown,         '  ,^,^ 

Nicholas  Tanner,  John  Allen,  Hugh  Cole,  Samuel  Luther,  ^A..  .rt^t 

Thomas  Lewis,  Benjamin  Alby,  John  Butterworth.  4-*^'**'' 

The  select  committees  for  the  management  of  the  pru- 
dential affairs  of  the  town,  (similar  to  the  townsmen  of 
Rehoboth,)  in  addition  to  the  abovementioned,  (with  the 
exception  of  Thomas  Lewis,)  were  Capt.  Thomas  Willett, 
Mr  Stephen  Paine,  sen.,  and  Thomas  Estabrooke ;  town 
clerks,  John  Myles,  jr.,  Nicholas  Tanner. 

The  Indian  war  which  broke  out  in  June,  1675,  over- 
whelmed Swansey  in  the  first  blast  of  its  rage,  and  left 
this  thriving  settlement  in  less  than  a  week   a  desolation 

PART  II,  32 


250  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

and  a  wreck.     The  history  of  that  war  belongs  to  another 
part  of  this  work. 

PLYMOUTH. 

The  pure  discipline  of  the  Plymouth  church  could  not 
prevent  the  growth  of  schism.  John  Weeks  and  his  wife 
became  followers  of  Gorton.  Samuel  Hickes,  dissatisfied 
with  the  established  ordinances,  became  a  Quaker. 

About  1643,  many  left  Plymouth  '  by  reason  of  the 
straitness  and  barrenness  of  the  place,'  and  the  church  be- 
gan seriously  to  think  of  removing,  and  purchased  a  tract 
of  land  on  Cape  Cod  of  the  Nausites,  but  the  design  was 
not  fully  executed  although  many  went,  '  and  thus  was 
this  poor  church,  (says  the  record,)  left  like  an  ancient 
mother,  grown  old,  and  forsaken  of  her  children  ;  her 
ancient  members  being  most  of  them  worn  away  by  death, 
and  these  of  latter  times  being  like  children  translated 
into  other  families,  and  she  like  a  widow  left  only  to  trust 
in  God.  She  had  made  many  rich  and  became  herself 
poor.' 

In  1643,  Plymouth  contained  one  hundred  and  fortysix 
males  between  sixteen  and  sixty.  The  governor,  Mr 
Prence,  Mr  Hopkins,  Mr  Jenny,  Mr  Paddy,  and  Nathaniel 
Souther,  were  chosen  a  council  of  war.  In  case  of  alarm 
twenty  men  were  ordered  to  be  sent  from  each  of  the 
towns  of  Plymouth,  Duxbury,  and  Marshfield. 

In  1644,  Mr  Brewster  died. 

In  1646,  Plymouth  was  almost  deserted  in  consequence 
of  the  reniovals  to  Eastham  and  to  the  towns  in  the  colony, 
and  Governor  Winthrop  represents  it  as  a  special  inter- 
position of  divine  Providence,  that  the  squadron  of  Capt. 
Thomas  Cromwell,  (who  was  but  little  better  than  a  buc- 
canier,)  should  have  been  compelled  by  stress  of  weather 
to  put  into  Plymouth  harbor,  '  where  they  continued  about 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY  25 1 

fourteen  days  or  more,  and  spent  liberally  and  gave  freely 
to  many  of  the  poorer  sort.' 

In  1640,  the  freemen  and  townsmen  were  seventynine. 

In  1648,  a  meeting-house  was  built,  and  selectmen  were 
chosen  for  the  first  time. 

In  1651,  Scipican  having  been  relinquished  by  Scituate, 
to  which  town  it  had  been  granted,  was  now  granted  to 
Plymouth,  and  the  Court  directed  that  the  lands  should  be 
purchased  of  the  natives.  '  It  was  bounded  and  laid  out 
by  a  joint  committee  of  the  colony  and  town.' 

In  1661,  '  £60  were  assessed  for  purchasing  and  pro- 
curing a  place  for  the  minister.' 

In  1662,  Clarke's  Island  was  abandoned.  Annual  ex- 
penses £25  5s.  3d. 

In  1663,  the  ministerial  house  was  built,  £60  voted  to 
finish  it. 

Mr  Reyner  the  pastor  dissolved  his  connexion  with  the 
church  in  November,  1654,  to  the  great  regret  as  it  would 
seem  of  the  church  and  people.  '  He  was  (says  the 
church  record,)  richly  accomplished  with  such  gifts  and 
qualifications  as  were  befitting  his  place  and  calling, 
being  wise,  faithful,  grave,  sober,  a  lover  of  good  men, 
not  greedy  of  the  matters  of  the  world,  armed  with  much 
faith,  patience,  and  meekness,  mixed  with  courage  in  the 
cause  of  God ;  was  an  able,  faithful,  laborious  preacher 
of  the  gospel,  and  a  wise  orderer  of  the  affairs  of  the 
church,  and  had  an  excellent  talent  of  training  up  children 
in  a  catechetical  way,  in  the  grounds  of  the  christian 
religion.  So  that  by  loss  of  him  ignorance  ensued  in  the 
town  among  the  vulgar,  and  also  much  licentiousness  and 
profaneness  among  the  younger  sort.  His  removal  was 
partly  occasioned  by  the  unhappy  differences  then  sub- 
sisting in  the  church  of  Barnstable,  which  much  affected 
this  church  ;  and  partly  by   the  going  away  of  divers  of 


252  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

the  church,  yea,  some  of  the  most  eminent  among  them, 
to  other  places  ;  and  partly  by  the  unsettledness  of  the 
church,  too  many  of  the  members  being  leavened  with 
prejudice  against  a  learned  ministry,  by  means  of  secta- 
ries then  spreading  through  the  land ;  an  epidemical  dis- 
ease prevailing  in  too  many  of  the  churches  about  that 
time.' 

Mr  Reyner  left  Plymouth  in  the  month  of  November, 
1654,  and  was  settled  at  Dover  in  New  Hampshire  in 
1657,  where  he  remained  until  his  death,  April  3,  1669.* 

After  the  departure  of  Mr  Reyner,  the  church  remained 
destitute  of  a  pastor  for  a  long  time,  which  caused  great 
grief  and  many  days  of  fasting  and  humiliation.  Mr  Cush- 
man  the  ruling  elder,  still  continued  the  public  worship. 
Mr  James  Williams,  an  able  preacher,  was  at  Plymouth 
for  a  short  period,  but  soon  returned  to  England. 

He  was  followed  by  Mr  William  Brimsmead,  who  was 
so  acceptable  to  the  church  and  people,  that  £70  annual 
salary  and  firewood  were  voted  to  induce  him  to  settle, 
but  he  declined,  and  was  settled  in  Marlborough  in  1660. f 

John  Cotton,  jr.  son  of  the  eminent  John  Cotton  of 
Boston,  was  invited  to  preach  at  Plymouth  in  September, 
1666,  but  having  engagements  he  did  not  go  ;  the  invita- 

*  The  author  of  the  Church  History,  says  Mr  Reyner,  spent  the  winter  of 
1654-5  in  Boston,  and  returned  to  Plymouth  in  the  spring  on  a  visit,  '  and 
would  have  easily  been  persuaded  to  have  returned  again,  if  the  people  would 
have  complied  with  a  proposition  made  by  him,  but  they  not  doing  it,  to  their 
after  sorrow,  he  went  back.' 

His  son,  John  Reyner,  who  was  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1663,  and  who  had 
been  his  assistant  in  the  work  of  the  ministry  at  Dover,  succeeded  him,  but 
died  young  soon  after  his  father. 

t  Mr  Brimsmead  was  a  native  of  Dorchester  near  Boston ;  he  was  educated 
at  Cambridge,  but  in  consequence  of  an  order  of  the  college  government  that 
the  residence  should  be  prolonged  from  three  years  to  four,  he  left  the  College 
in  1647.  Mr  Brimsmead  preached  the  election  sermon  in  1681,  and  died  July 
3,  1701. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  253 

tion  being  renewed,  he  removed  to  Plymouth  with  his 
family  in  November,  1667,  and  was  ordained  the  third 
pastor  of  the  ancient  church,  June  30,  1669.  The  churches 
present  were  those  of  Barnstable,  Marshfield,  Weymouth, 
and  Duxbury. 

At  this  time  there  were  fortyseven  church  members. 

The  pastor  and  ruling  elder  then  passed  through  the 
town  '  to  inquire  into  the  state  of  souls,'  counselling, 
admonishing,  exhorting,  and  encouraging,  by  which  means 
there  was  an  aivakening. —  'The  work  of  God,  (says  Mr 
Cotton,)  seemed  in  those  days  to  have  a  considerable  re- 
vival.'—  Great  numbers  joined  themselves  to  the  church. 
'  The  practice  was  formally  to  make  a  confession  of  faith, 
and  their  declaration  of  their  experiences  of  a  work  of 
grace,  in  the  presence  of  the  congregation  ;  having  been 
examined  and  heard  before  by  the  elders  in  private  ;  and 
they  stood  propounded  in  public  for  two  or  three  weeks 
ordinarily  ;  and  the  relations  of  the  women  being  written 
in  private  from  their  mouths,  were  read  in  public  by  the 
pastor,  and  the  elders  gave  testimony  of  the  competency 
of  their  knowledge.' — Members  from  other  churches 
having  letters  of  dismission,  were  admitted  of  course. 

Mr  Cotton  engaged  zealously  in  the  work  of  converting 
the  Indians,  but  unfortunately,  not  without  many  diffi- 
culties and  quarrels  with  his  coadjutors. 

The  disputes  between  Mr  Cotton  and  Mr  JMayhew 
brought  from  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies 
a  serious  reprehension.  Mr  Cotton  appeared  before  them, 
and  it  was  signified  to  him  that  '  no  good  could  be  ex- 
pected by  their  labors  when  by  their  mutual  contentions 
and  invectives,  they  undid  what  they  taught  the  natives.' 
Mr  Cotton  having  informed  the  Commissioners  '  that  sun- 
dry calls  had   been  made   him  by  the   English  to  other 


254  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

places,  he  was  left  to  his  liberty  to  dispose  of  himself  as 
the  Lord  should  guide  him.'  * 

DUXBURY. 

During  the  whole  period  from  1641  to  1675,  Duxbury 
continued  to  increase.  The  fertility  of  the  lands  com- 
pared with  those  of  Plymouth,  and  its  contiguity,  rendered 
it  a  desirable  residence  to  all  who  became  dissatisfied  with 
Plymouth.  In  1643,  the  number  of  men  able  to  bear  arms 
between  sixteen  and  sixty,  was  seventysix. 

As  early  as  1645,  this  town  prayed  the  General  Court 
for  an  exteiision  of  their  lands,  and  obtained  a  grant,  and 
extinguished  the  Indian  title,  and  settled  that  extensive 
tract  afterwards  known  by  the  name  of  Bridgewater, 
which  was  at  first  merely  an  extension  of  Duxbury. 

This  grant  was  made  to  fiftyfour  persons,  exclusive  of 
the  minister  and  miller,  who  were  not  inhabitants  of  Dux- 
bury.f  In  consequence  of  obtaining  this  tract,  many 
respectable  inhabitants  of  Duxbury  left  that  town  and 
removed  to  Bridgewater. 

*  Mr  Cotton  remained  pastor  of  the  church  of  Plymouth  to  tlie  5th  of  Octo- 
ber, 1697.     He  will  be  mentioned  hereafter. 
In  1670,  the  number  of  freemen  was  fiftyone. 

t  This  grant  was  made  in  1645.     The  names  of  the  proprietors  are  annexed. 

William  Bradford,  Mr  Myles  Standish,  Philip  De  La  Noye, 

John  Bradford,  Love  Brewster,  Mr  John  Alden, 

William  Merrick,  John  Paybody,  Samuel  Nash, 

Abraham  Peirce,  William  Paybody,  Abraham  Sampson 

John  Rogers,  Francis  Sprague,  George  Soule, 

George  Partridge,  Edmund  Hunt,  Henry  Howland, 

John  Starr,  William  Clarke,  Henry  Sampson, 

Mr  William  Collier,  WilUamFord,  John  Brown, 

Christopher  Wadsworth,     Mr  Constant  South  worth,  Francis  West, 

Edward  Hall,  Edmund  Weston,  William  Tubbs, 

Nicholas  Robins,  Edmund  Chandler,  James  Lindell, 

Mr  Ralph  Partridge,  Moses  Simons,  Samuel  Eaton. 

Thomas  Bonney,  John  Irish, 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  255 

The  Indian  title  to  Bridgevvater  was  extinguished  in 
1649,  and  the  settlement  commenced  soon  after,  probably 
in  1650. 

Notwithstanding  the  loss  of  so  many  inhabitants,  Dux- 
bury  still  remained  a  thriving  and  prosperous  town.  '  In 
1654,  when  sixty  men  were  raised  to  go  against  the  Dutch,' 
Duxbury  was  considered  nearly  as  populous  as  Plymouth, 
having  furnished  six  of  the  sixty,  and  Plymouth  only  seven. 

In  1659,  a  large  tract  of  land  on  Taunton  river  was 
purchased  of  Ossamequin  (Massasoiet)  and  his  son  Philip, 
and  the  squaw  sachem  Tatapanum,  by  several  of  the  in- 
habitants of  Duxbury,  and  some  of  IMarshfield,  which 
tract  was  afterwards  included  in  Little  Compton,  but  no 
settlement  was  commenced  for  several  years. 

Duxbury  was  the  parent  town  of  Bridgewater  and  Little 
Compton. 

Mr  Partridge,  the  minister,  who  had  been  settled  in 
1637,  died  in  165S.  Most  of  the  earlier  ministers  in  the 
colony  had  been  compelled  to  abandon  their  charges  on 
account  of  insufficient  support,  but  Mr  Partridge  remained 
steadily  with  his  people,  and  died  amongst  them.  He 
had  been  settled  in  the  ministry  in  England,  and  fell  under 
the  displeasure  of  the  established  church,  during  the  ad- 
ministration of  Archbishop  Laud,  and  being  hunted  '  like 

The  following  grantees,  inhabitants  of  Duxbury,  settled  on  this  tract, 
namely, 

Thomas  Hayward,  William  Brett, 

Nathaniel  Willis,  John  Cary, 

John  Willis,  Samuel  Tompkins, 

William  Bassett,  Arthur  Harris, 

John  Washburn,  John  Fobes, 

John  Washburn,  junior.  Experience  Mitchell, 

John  Ames,  John  Haward, 

Thomas  Gannett,  Salomon  Leonardson, 
Mr  Keith  the  minister,  and  Samuel  Edson  the  miller,  were  included,  but  they 
were  not  inhabitants  of  Duxbury. 


256  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

a  partridge  on  the  mountains,'  he  fled  to  America,  and 
arrived  at  Boston  in  1636. 

Mr  Partridge  was  one  of  the  most  learned  ministers  in 
the  colony,  and  in  such  estimation  was  he  held,  that  he 
was  appointed  by  the  synod  which  met  at  Cambridge  in 
1647,  in  conjunction  with  Mr  Cotton  and  Richard  Mather, 
to  draw  '  a  model  of  church  government  according  to  the 
word  of  God.'  The  model  was  adopted,  and-  is  now 
known  by  the  name  of  the  '  Cambridge  platform.' 

The  Quakers  seemed  to  have  made  Duxbury  their  head 
quarters  in  the  colony,  and  in  1660,  held  a  monthly  meeting 
there,  which  produced  a  special  order  from  the  Court  that 
means  should  be  taken  to  hinder  their  worship. 

Mr  Partridge  was  succeeded  by  the  Reverend  John 
Holmes,  who  was  settled  probably  in  1663  or  1664.  Mr 
Holmes  left  his  charge  shortly  after.*  His  successor  was 
Ichabod  Wiswall,  a  native  of  Dorchester,  near  Boston. 
Mr  Wiswall  like  Mr  Brimsmead,  had  been  a  student  at 
Cambridge,  but  left  the  college  for  the  same  reason  in 
1647.  He  was  settled  at  Duxbury  about  the  year  1670. 
He  will  be  noticed  hereafter. 

SCITUATE. 

Nowithstanding  the  great  emigration  to  Barnstable  in 
1639,  Scituate  was  soon  replenished,  and  became  the  most 
populous  town  in  the  colony. 

In  1637,  a  tract  of  land  already  mentioned,  was  granted 
to  Messrs  Shirley,  Beauchamp,  Andrews,  and  Hatherly, 
London  merchants. 

Mr  Hatherly  in  1646,  sold  all  the  rights,  (excepting  his 
own,)  to  the  Reverend  Charles  Chauncy  and  others,  for 
£180,  in  thirty  shares.  Great  controversy  arose  respecting 
this  grant,  but  in  1652,  the  Court  confirmed  it. 

*  Probably  in  1668. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  257 

In  1654,  another  grant  was  made  to  Mr  Hatherly,  out  of 
which  he  was  to  satisfy  those  who  complained.  This 
grant  conveyed  to  the  grantee  '  a  competency'  of  land  not 
included  in  any  township,  and  west  of  Scituate. 

In  July,  1656,  the  Court  granted  to  Mr  Hatherly,  'a 
tract  of  land  three  miles  square,  extending  from  Accord 
Pond  three  miles  southerly.'  This  grant  includes  a  part 
of  Abington  and  Hanover.  The  whole  number  of  shares 
was  forty.  Twentythree  were  sold  to  John  Otis  of  Scitu- 
ate, Matthew  Gushing,  John  Thaxter,  John  Jacob,  and 
Edward  Wilder,  of  Hingham. 

The  Conihasset  common  shares  which  were  included  in 
the  first  grant,  were  the  subject  of  a  long  and  arduous 
controversy,  which  was  not  terminated  until  1671,  when 
lands  were  assigned  to  each  share  not  exceeding  eighty 
acres,  nor  less  than  fifty. 

The  settlers  of  Scituate  were  principally  from  the 
county  of  Kent.     Many  of  them  were  shipbuilders. 

In  1652,  '  a  military  discipline,'  was  established  at 
Scituate.  The  officers  were  appointed  by  the  Court. 
James  Cudworth  was  captain,  John  Vassall,  lieutenant,  and 
Joseph  Tilden,  ensign.  In  1643,  the  number  of  males 
between  sixteen  and  sixty,  was  one  hundred. 

In  1657,  the  following  names  appear  on  the  list  of  free- 
men ;  John  Palmer,  senior  and  sons,  Thomas  Oldham, 
Nathaniel  Rawlins,  George  Pidcoke,  Daniel  Hickes,  John 
Magoon,  Thomas  Ingham,  Jonas  Pickles,  Samuel  Utley, 
John  Durand,  Robert  Whetcombe,  Abraham  Sutliffe,  John 
Whiston,  John  Winter,  John  Cowin  ;  in  1662,  John  Otis 
and  John  Gushing  ;  in  1668,  Charles  Stockbridge,  Israel 
Cudworth,  John  James,  Experience  Litchfield,  Edward 
Wanton,  and  William  Ticknor. 

Abraham  Preble,  an  early  settler,  went  to  Maine.  He 
was  the  ancestor  of  a  numerous  and  distinguished  family. 

PART    II.  33 


258  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

The  descendants  of  John  Otis  and  John  Gushing  have 
been  eminently  distinguished. 

William  Vassall,  a  gentleman  of  family  and  fortune,  was 
amongst  the  early  emigrants  to  Massachusetts,  and  was 
one  of  the  assistants,  but  as  he  still  remained  an  Episco- 
palian, although  a  Puritan,  he  was  viewed  with  jealousy. 
The  distrust  and  suspicions  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts 
induced  him  to  leave  that  colony,  and  he  removed  to  Scit- 
uate  ;  there  his  possessions  were  large  ;  his  plantation  was 
called  West  Newland.  After  the  conquest  of  Jamaica, 
he  obtained  large  grants  of  land  there,  and  died  in  1655, 
at  Barbadoes.*  Mr  Hatherly,  the  principal  founder  of  the 
town,  died  there  in  1666.     Joseph  Tilden  died  in  1670. 

Mr  John  Lathrop  has  been  already  mentioned  as  the 
first  pastor  of  Scituate,  January  18th,  1635,  and  also  as 
the  first  pastor  of  Barnstable,  in  1639.  A  brief  memoir 
of  his  life  has  already  been  given ;  he  died  at  Barnstable 
in  1653. 

Mr  Lathrop  in  1641,  was  succeeded  by  Charles  Chauncy, 
who  in  1654,  was  elected  the  second  president  of  Harvard 
College ;  he  removed  to  Cambridge,  and  died  there  in 
1672. 

Some  mention  has  already  been  made  of  President 
Chauncy.  He  was  born  in  Hertfordshire,  in  1589.  His 
progress  through  Westminster  School,  and  the  University 
of  Cambridge,  where  he  was  appointed  to  two  professor- 
ships, has  already  been  mentioned.      He  was  in  school  at 

*  Mr  Vassall  had  several  sons.  One  of  his  daughters  married  Resolved 
White,  a  sonof  Mr  William  White,  one  of  the  Pilgrims  of  the  May  Flower,  and 
an  elder  brother  of  the  first  born  of  New  England.  Another  married  James 
Adams,  another  Nicholas  Ware  of  Virginia.  At  the  commencement  of  the 
Revolution,  many  descendants  of  Mr  Vassall  resided  in  Massachusetts  ;  most  of 
them  were  loyalists.  The  gallant  Colonel  Vassall  of  the  British  army,  who  fell 
in  the  attack  on  Montevideo  in  1806,  was  a  descendant ;  Lady  Holland  also  ; 
and  the  name  is  attached  to  the  title  of  Lord  Holland. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  359 

the  time  '  when  the  gunpowder  plot  was  to  have  taken 
effect,'  and  had  it  succeeded,  he  must  have  shared  the 
fate  of  the  king,  lords,  and  commons  of  England. 

He  was  settled  in  the  ministry  at  Marstow,  and  after- 
wards at  Ware,  (England.) 

In  1629,  he  was  arraigned  before  the  high  Commission 
Court  for  using  these  expressions  in  a  sermon  ;  '  Idolatry 
is  admitted  into  the  church ;  the  preaching  of  the  gospel 
will  be  suppressed  ;  there  is  much  atheism,  popery,  Ar- 
minianism,  and  heresy,  crept  into  the  church.'  The 
accusation  was  referred  to  the  Bishop  of  London,  '  who 
ordered  him  to  make  a  submission  in  Latin.' 

In  1635,  he  was  again  brought  before  the  Court  of  High 
Commission,  '  for  opposing  the  making  a  rail  round  the 
communion  table  in  the  parish  church  of  Ware,  as  an 
innovation  and  snare  to  men's  consciences,'  and  (says 
Rushworth,)  he  was  pronounced  guilty  of  contempt  of 
ecclesiastical  government,  and  of  raising  a  schism  ;  and 
was  suspended  from  his  ministry  till  he  should  make  in 
open  court  a  recantation  in  open  form ;  acknowledging 
his  great  offence,  and  protesting  that  he  was  persuaded  in 
his  conscience  that  kneeling  at  the  sacrament  was  a  lawful 
and  commendable  gesture ;  that  the  rail  set  up  in  the 
chancel,  with  a  bench  thereto  annexed  for  kneeling  at  the 
holy  communion,  was  a  decent  and  convenient  ornament ; 
and  promising  never  by  word  or  deed  to  oppose  either 
that  or  any  other  laudable  rites  or  ceremony  prescribed  in 
the  Church  of  England.  He  was  condemned  in  great  costs 
of  suit,  and  was  imprisoned  till  he  paid  the  same,  and 
performed  the  order  of  court.  Afterwards  he  made  his 
recantation,  and  was  dismissed  with  an  admonition  from 
the  archbishop.' 

His  very  respectable  descendant,  (the  late  Dr  Chauncy 
of  Boston,)  says,    '  his  making  an  open  recantation  in 


260  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

court,  and  in  the  form  that  had  been  prescribed,  and  in 
order  to  a  release  from  an  adjudged  penalty,  was  greatly 
dishonorable,  though  the  effect  of  great  temptation.  He 
never  forgave  himself  this  weakness  and  folly.  The  re- 
sentment of  a  rebuking  conscience  for  such  unworthy 
conduct,  made  him  often  uneasy  to  his  dying  day.  I  have 
by  me  a  copy  of  the  preface  to  his  last  will,  wherein  he 
particularly  mentions  and  laments,  as  still  fresh  before 
him,  his  "  many  sinful  compliances  with,  and  conformity 
unto  vile  human  inventions,  will  worship,  superstition,  and 
patcheries,  stitched  into  the  service  of  the  Lord,  which 
the  English  mass-book,  I  mean,  (says  he,)  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,  and  the  ordination  of  priests,  &c,  are 
fully  fraught  withal."  Nor  did  he  think  this  enough,  but 
goes  on  giving  it  in  charge  to  his  posterity,  throughout  all 
generations,  with  the  greatest  warmth  of  zeal,  and  so- 
lemnity of  language,  as  they  would  answer  for  their  con- 
duct at  the  tribunal  of  Jesus  Christ,  not  to  conform  (as  he 
had  done)  to  rites  and  ceremonies  in  religious  worship 
of  man's  devising,  and  not  of  God's  appointing.' 

'  He  was  finally  suspended  and  silenced  by  Archbishop 
Laud,  for  refusing  to  read  the  book  of  sports.' 

Wearied  out  by  continued  persecutions,  fines,  and  im- 
prisonments, Dr  Chauncy  abandoned  England  in  1637, 
and  arrived  at  Boston  in  1638,  and  soon  after  went  to 
Plymouth,  where  he  assisted  Mr  Reyner,  and  was  held  in 
high  estimation.  Here  he  continued  until  early  in  1641, 
when  he  succeeded  Mr  Lathrop  at  Scituate.  So  great 
was  his  poverty,  that  in  one  of  his  letters  he  says  that  he 
might  with  truth  declare,  '  deest  quidem  panis.'  Notions 
at  this  time  began  to  prevail,  that  settled  ministers  were 
incumbrances,  and  that  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel  might 
as  well  be  expounded  by  the  illiterate  and  ignorant  as  by 
this  great  and  accomplished    scholar.       The    miserable 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  261 

poverty  in  which  he  lived,  induced  him  to  listen  to  an  invi- 
tation from  the  church  over  which  he  had  presided  in 
England  where  the  Puritans  now  predominated,  and  he 
prepared  to  return.  While  at  Boston,  waiting  a  passage, 
he  was  elected  president  of  the  college,  on  condition  that 
he  should  not  promulgate  and  preach  his  peculiar  notions 
with  respect  to  the  rite  of  immersion,  and  of  celebrating 
the  Lord's  supper  in  the  evening.  To  this  condition  he 
acceded,  and  faithfully  performed  his  engagement,  and 
was  inaugurated  as  president,  November  27,  1654. 

His  situation  was  now  more  comfortable,  yet  the  scanty 
stipend  of  £100  per  annum,  was  by  no  means  an  adequate 
compensation  to  one  in  this  station.  Under  his  patronage 
the  college  prospered,  and  many  afterwards  eminent  both 
in  church  and  state,  acknowledged  the  benefit  of  his  in- 
structions. In  the  year  1671,  on  commencement  day,  he 
delivered  his  farewell  oration,  and  solemnly  took  leave  of 
his  friends. 

His  anticipations  of  speedy  death  were  realized,  and  on 
the  19th  of  February  in  the  following  year,  he  expired,  in 
the  eightysecond  year  of  his  age,  and  in  the  17th  of  his 
presidency.* 

*  President  Chauncy  left  six  sons  and  one  daughter.  His  sons  were  all 
educated  at  the  college.  His  third  son  Barnabas,  and  his  fifth  son  Elnathan, 
who  was  a  physician  of  much  note,  and  who  died  at  Barbadoes,  left  no  children. 

Isaac,  his  eldest  son,  went  to  England.  He  was  a  physician  and  the  minister 
of  Woodborough,  and  ejected  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  He  then  for  some  time 
was  pastor  of  a  congregational  church  at  Andover.  He  then  removed  to  Lon- 
don, and  was  '  a  zealous  writer  against  Neonomianism ; '  and  although  it  was 
his  intention  to  practice  medicine  only,  yet  he  was  called  to  succeed  Mr  Clark- 
son  the  successor  of  Dv  Owen,  as  pastor  of  a  dissenting  congregation  there. 
Dr  Isaac  Watts  was  his  assistant,  and  afterwards  his  successor,  when  he  quitted 
the  ministry.  Mr  Chauncy  officiated  as  pastor  fourteen  years.  He  died  at 
London,  February  28th,  1712.  His  youngest  son  Charles,  came  to  America 
and  established  himself  at  Boston  as  a  merchant.  He  was  the  father  of  the 
celebrated  Charles  Chauncy,  who  was  so  long  the  pastor  of  the  first  church  in 


262  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

President  Chauncy  was  unquestionably  a  most  accom- 
plished scholar,  and  in  the  main  a  good  man ;  yet  his 
excessive  hatred  of  the  mere  ceremonial  of  the  church  of 
England,  indicates  a  disposition  as  capable  of  bigotry  as 
that  of  his  great  persecutor  Archbishop  Laud.  That  he 
should  have  exposed  himself  to  persecutions,  fines,  and 
imprisonments,  because  religious  pedants  and  triflers 
required  a  rail  round  the  communion  table  ;  that  the 
wounds  of  conscience  should  have  rankled  for  so  many 
years  in  his  bosom  for  submitting  to  that  which  every 
liberal  and  intelligent  mind  must  now  deem  to  be  a  matter 
too  trifling  for  grave  consideration ;  that  he  should  sink 
into  his  grave  under  a  distressing  sense  of  his  frailty  in 
such  a  cause,  indicates  a  stubbornness  of  temper  almost 
of  a  Pharisaic  character.  Perhaps,  however,  his  contu- 
macy was  nothing  more  than  the  resistance  of  a  proud  and 
independent  spirit  against  the  forms  of  oppression,  and  the 
imposition  of  new  ceremonials  of  little  efficacy  in  pious 
exercises,  addressed  rather  to  the  eye  than  to  the  reason, 
intended  for  external  ornament  and  not  for  the  furtherance 

Boston,  who  died  as  late  as  1787.  The  last  Dr  Chauncy  exhibited  the  same 
eccentricity,  which  seemed  in  some  degree  inherent  in  this  talented  family. 
He  became  a  Universalist,  and  thus  passed  from  the  deep  Calvinism  of  his 
great  ancestor  to  the  other  extreme. 

Ichabod,  the  second  son  of  President  Chauncy,  also  went  to  England,  and 
was  for  some  time  chaplain  to  Sir  Edward  Harley's  regiment  at  Dunkirk.  The 
act  of  uniformity  silenced  him.  He  then  became  a  physician  in  the  city  of 
Bristol ;  but  the  spirit  of  religious  persecution  pursued  him,  and  he  fled  to 
Holland,  but  returned  after  the  act  of  toleration  in  the  time  of  James  IL,  and 
died  at  Bristol,  July  25th,  1691. 

Nathaniel,  the  fourth  son  of  the  president,  was  successively  pastor  of  the 
church  at  Windsor  in  Connecticut,  and  Hatfield  in  Massachusetts. 

The  youngest  son,  Israel,  a  most  excellent  gentleman,  was  pastor  of  the 
church  at  Stratford,  Connecticut,  for  many  years.  The  daughter  of  President 
Chauncy  married  Gershom  Bulkley,  son  of  the  pastor  of  Concord,  and  was  the 
mother  of  the  celebrated  John  Bulkley  of  Colchester. 


MEMOIR  OF   PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  263 

of  devout  worship  ;  for  when  he  was  required  to  refrain  from 
preaching  his  peculiar  doctrines  touching  immersion,  and 
the  time  of  administering  the  Lord's  supper,  (which  he  con- 
tended should  be  always  in  the  evening,)  two  subjects  about 
which  it  might  have  been  reasonably  supposed  that  he 
would  have  been  far  more  sensitive  and  scrupulous  than 
about  the  erection  of  a  rail  round  the  communion  table, 
yet  he  yielded  to  the  requirement  of  the  overseers  of  the 
college  without  reluctance,  accompanied  as  it  was  with 
the  flattering  offer  of  a  high  literary  office. 

Bigotry  is  a  quality  inherent  in  the  human  mind,  founded 
on  a  strong  conviction  of  self-rectitude,  and  can  never 
admit  the  possibility  of  self-delusion  ;  it  therefore  cannot 
tolerate  a  difference  in  opinion,  even  on  such  points  as  are 
made  essential  only  by  the  waywardness  of  the  human  will. 
It  exists  always  and  with  all,  but  varies  its  mode  of  action 
and  the  degree  of  its  violence,  according  to  the  general 
temper  and  circumstances  of  the  age,  or  the  particular 
disposition  of  individuals.  Deprived  of  penal  power,  and 
wielding  no  longer  the  weapons  of  political  authority  to 
enforce  submission  to  its  decrees,  the  odiousness  of  its 
character  has  been  concealed  in  modern  times.  Yet  the 
spirit  is  as  fierce  and  as  intolerant  as  it  was  in  the  days  of 
Archbishop  Laud,  but  it  is  now  the  intolerance  of  opinion, 
and  not  of  power.  If  two  Anabaptists  were  selected  in  suc- 
cession to  preside  over  our  most  ancient  literary  institu- 
tion by  men  who  detested  their  principles,  but  admired 
their  learning,  we  have  little  reason  to  pride  ourselves  in 
a  liberality  superior  to  that  of  our  ancestors,  when  the 
most  accomplished  scholar  in  the  nation,  if  a  Calvinist, 
would  be  rejected  at  Cambridge,  and  if  not  a  Calvinist,  at 
Yale  and  Princeton,  and  if  not  a  Baptist,  at  Providence.* 

*  Governor   Winthrop,  as  much  of  a  bigot  as  Dr  Chauncy,  and  far  more 
credulous  and  superstitious,  gives  this  account  of  his  opinions  and  conduct. 


264  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

A  Mr  Saxton  and  Adam  Blackman  preached  temporarily 
at  Scituate,  but  were  not  settled. 

After  the  dismission  of  Mr  Dunster,  the  first  president 
of  Harvard  College,  in  1654,  he  retired  to  Scituate,  where 
he  lived  until  his  death,  in  1657.  His  remains  were 
carried  to  Cambridge.  It  is  said  that  while  a  resident  at 
Scituate,  he  occasionally  preached. 

Nicholas  Baker  succeeded  Dr  Chauncy.  He  was  from 
Hingham,  and  had  been  a  delegate  to  the  General  Court 
of  Massachusetts.  Mather  says  of  him,  '  Honest  Nicholas 
Baker,  who  though  he  had  but  a  private  education,  yet 
being  a  pious  and  zealous  man,  or,  as  Dr  Arrowsmith 
expresses  it,  so  good  a  logician  that  he  could  offer  up  to 
God  a  reasonable  service  ;  so  good  an  arithmetician,  that 
he  could  wisely  number  his  days  5  and  so  good  an  orator, 
that  he  persuaded  himself  to  be  a  good  christian;  and 
being  also  one  of  good  natural  parts,  especially  a  strong 

*  Our  neighbors  at  Plymouth  had  produced  from  hence  (England)  this  year, 
(1639)  one  Mr  Chauncy,  a  great  scholar  ,  and  a  godly  man,  intending  to  call  ' 
him  to  the  office  of  a  teacher  ;  but  before  the  fit  time  came,  he  discovered  his 
judgment  about  baptism,  that  the  children  ought  to  be  dipped  and  not  sprinkled ; 
and  he,  being  an  active  man  and  very  vehement,  there  arose  much  trouble 
about  it.  The  magistrates  and  the  other  elders  there,  and  the  most  of  the  peo- 
ple withstood  the  receiving  of  that  practice,  not  for  itself  so  much,  as  for  fear  of 
worse  consequences,  as  the  annihilating  our  baptism,  &c.  Whereupon  the  church 
there  wrote  to  all  the  other  churches,  both  here  and  at  Connecticut,  &c,  for 
advice,  and  sent  Mr  Chauncy's  arguments.  The  churches  took  them  into 
consideration,  and  leturned  their  several  answers,  wherein  they  shewed  their 
dissent  from  him,  and  clearly  confuted  all  his  arguments,  discovering  withal 
some  great  mistakes  of  his  about  the  judgment  and  practice  of  antiquity.  Yet 
he  would  not  give  over  his  opinion;  and  the  church  of  Plymouth,  (though 
they  could  not  agree  to  call  him  to  office,  yet,)  being  much  taken  with  his  able 
parts,  they  were  loath  to  part  with  him.' 

The  extreme  dislike  of  Governor  Winthrop  to  Dr  Chauncy,  can  be  perceived 
throughout  this  passage,  and  yet  he  admits  him  to  be  '  a  great  scholar,'  '  a  godly 
man,'  &c.  In  similar  circumstances,  would  an  equal  degree  of  candor  be 
exhibited  at  this  day .'' 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  265 

memory,  was  chosen  pastor,  &c.'     He  was  settled  in  1660, 
and  died  August  22d,  1678. 

A  second  church  was  gathered  early  in  Scituate,  of 
which  William  Wetherell  became  the  pastor,  in  Septem- 
ber, 1645,  and  remained  until  his  death,  April  9th,  1684. 

TAUNTON. 

In  the  catalogue  of  proprietors  the  name  of  Bishop 
does  not  appear.  Mr  Bishop  was  one  of  the  earliest  pro- 
prietors and  settlers.  He  was  the  schoolmaster  of  the 
settlement.  In  the  list  of  the  freemen  of  Massachusetts, 
September  2d,  1635,  appears  the  name  of  Mr  Townsend 
Bishop  ;  whether  he  was  the  Taunton  schoolmaster  or  not, 
is  not  known.  It  was  usual  at  that  period  to  prefix  the 
Mr  to  the  schoolmaster.  Letchford  says  he  assisted  to 
ordain  Mr  Hooke.  It  is  believed  he  went  to  New  Haven. 
The  names  of  Jacob  Wilson  and  David  Greenman,  do  not 
appear  on  the  catalogue,  although  they  were  early  pro- 
prietors ;  nor  that  of  Richard  Hart,  who  was  also  an  early 
proprietor.  John  Drake  expressed  his  desire  to  be  made 
a  freeman,  October  16th,  1630,  at  Boston,  but  never  be- 
came one.  John  Browne  was  a  freeman  of  Massachusetts 
in  1634,  and  chosen  an  assistant.  James  Browne  and 
Oliver  Purchase  were  freemen  in  1636,  and  John  Strong 
of  Hingham,  and  Nathaniel  Woodward  in  1637.  Joseph 
Wilson  in  1638. 

Elizabeth  Poole's  lands  were  specially  laid  out  by  order 
of  the  Court  at  Plymouth,  in  May,  1639,  by  Captain  Myles 
Standish,  and  Mr  John  Brown.* 

*  Namely,  her  farm  at  Littleworth,  forty  acres  of  meadow  being  at  the  end 
next  unto  her  house  there. 

Fifty  acres  of  such  upland  as  she  shall  make  choice  of  thereabouts.      Fifty 
acres  of  upland  lying  near  the  Two  Mile  Brook,  joining  to  the  marsh  on  the 
south  side  thereof. — Half  the  marsh. 
PART    II.  34 


266  MEMOI^l  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

In  1640,  Taunton  was  bounded  by  Myles  Standish  and 
John  Browne,  by  order  of  Court. 

In  1641,  Mr  William  Poole,  Mr  John  Gilbert  senior,  Mr 
Henry  Andrews,  John  Strong,  John  Dean,  Walter  Dean, 
and  Edward  Case,  received  a  grant  of  forty  acres  each, 
'  lying  together  in  some  convenient  place,  for  their  great 
charges  attending  courts,  laying  out  of  lands,  and  other 
occasions  for  the  town.' 


One  hundred  acres  of  upland  on  the  other  side  of  the  great  river  of  Taunton, 
Her  home  lot  ten  acres,  to  be  next.unto  Mr  Hooka's  houselot,  and  also  to  the  mill 
six  acres. 

In  a  confirmatory  deed  made  July  20,  1686,  by  •  Josiah,  othenvise  called 
Charles,  an  Indian  sachem  living  at  Mattakeset,  in  the  colony  of  New  Ply- 
mouth, and  son  to  Josiah  deceased,  who  was  an  Indian  sachem,  and  Peter,  and 
David  Hunter,  both  Indians  of  Tittiquet,  an  Indian  plantation  in  New  Plymouth 
colony,'  refer  to  testimonies  both  English  and  Indian,  '  that  Mrs  Elizabeth 
Poole  formerly  of  Taunton,  did  for  and  in  behalf  of  the  said  town  of  Taunton 
purchase  the  lands  of  Tittiquet,  in  the  year  one  thousand  six  hundred  and 
thirty  seven,  and  that  the  right  owners  of  the -said  lands  did  make  sale  thereof 
to  the  said  Mrs  Elizabeth  Poole  as  abovesaid,  and  received  pay  of  her  for  it.' 

Mrs  Poole's  home  lot  and  the  six  acres  to  the  mill,  comprised  the  lands  on  the 
south  side  of  the  green,  commencing  near  the  old  jail,  and  running  east  nearly 
to  the  dwelling  house  built  by  Dr  Foster  Swift,  now  owned  by  Hon.  Samuel 
Crocker,  and  containing  all  the  lands  between  that  line  and  the  mill  river.  The 
house  stood  upon  a  small  piece  of  land  which  had  been  included  in  Mr  Hooke's 
lot,  and  there  was  her  grave  on  the  spot  now  occupied  by  the  house.  Her 
dwelling  house  was  itrlhe  rear  of  the  shops  on  the  street  between  the  ffreen 
(the  ancient  training  field)  and  the  meeting-house.  Some  traces  of  the  cellar 
were  visible  a  few  years  since. 

Mr  Hooke's  lot  embraced  the  land  between  Elizabeth  Poole's  lot,  the  highway 
by  the  meeting-house,  the  road  leading  over  Street's  bridge,  and  the  mill  river. 

The  lot  west  of  Mrs  Poole's  was  first  owned  by  Thomas  Lincoln,  and  then  by 
Richard  Stevens. 

The  lots  of  John  Dean,  Walter  Dean,  John  Strong,  Hezekiah  Hoar,  and 
Edward  Case,  were  on  the  road  facing  the  river,  (now  called  Dean  street.) 

Edward  Case's  lot  was  sold  to  Samuel  Wilbore,  one  of  those  who  were  ban- 
ished with  Mrs  Hutchinson  from  Massachusetts.  After  residing  in  Taunton  a 
short  time,  he  returned  to  Boston,  and  gave  his  lands  in  Taunton  to  his  son 
Shadrach. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 


267 


In  1643,  privileges  for  a  calf-pasture  were  allowed.  In 
1647,  the  calf-pasture  neck  was  sold  to  Henry  Andrews, 
for  building  the  meeting-house. 

In  1643,  the  males  in  Taunton  between  sixteen  and 
sixty,  subject  to  military  duty,  were  fiftyfour.* 


Namely, — 
Mr  John  Browne, 
Mr  William  Poole, 
John  Brown, 
James  Brown, 
James  Walker, 
Oliver  Purchase, 
Thomas  Gilbert, 
Richard  Stacy, 
William  HoUoway, 
Timothy  Hollo  way, 
William  Parker, 
Peter  Pitts, 
John  Parker, 
William  Haylstone, 
William  Hodges, 
William  Phillips, 
John  Macomber, 
Thomas  Coggin, 
James  Wyatt, 
Edward  Rew, 
Thomas  Harvey, 
James  Chichester, 
William  Edwards, 
Aaron  Knap, 
John  Barratt, 
Nicholas  Hart, 
William  Powell, 


Edward  Bobbett, 
Richard  Paul, 
Anthony  Slocurn, 
Edward  Case, 
Thomas  Farwell, 
Tobias  Saunders, 
Henry  Andrews, 
John  Gollup, 
John  Gilbert,  junior, 
John  Strong, 
Thomas  Caswell, 
John  Deane, 
Edward  Abbott, 
Walter  Deane, 
William  Wethrell, 
Hezekiah  Hoar,  • 
George  Macey, 
George  Hall, 
John  Perry, 
Benjamin  Wilson, 
Mr  Street, 
Richard  Williams, 
William  Evans, 
Christopher  Thrasher, 
Thomas  Cooke, 
Thomas  Cooke,  junior, 
John  Gengelle. 


The  names  of  Henry  Uxley,  Joseph  Wilson,  William  Coy,  David  Corwithy, 
John  Kingslow,  Richard  Smith,  William  Dunn,  William  Scadding,  Robert 
Hobell,  John  Drako,  and  John  Luther,  do  not  appear. 

John  Richmond  was  either  above  sixty,  or  had  gone  to  Rhode  Island.  Mr 
John  Gilbert  was  above  sixty.  Mr  Rossiter  had  gone  to  Connecticut  or  New 
Haven.  'John  Briant  and  John  Grossman  were  probably  above  sixty.  John 
Gengille  had  disappeared  from  Taunton  in  16-^9,  or  1640,  and  was  never  '  seen 
or  heard  of  tliere  afterwards.'     It  was  reported  that  he  went  to  Lynn. 


268  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLOFK". 

In  1652,  the  first  extensive  iron  works  in  North  America 
were  erected  at  Taunton,  by  James  Leonard,  Henry 
Leonard,  and  Ralph  Russell,  who  came  from  Pontipool,  in 
Wales,  and  settled  first  at  Braintree.  October  21st,  1652, 
the  following  record  was  made  on  the  town-book. 

'  It  was  at  a  town-meeting  conferred  and  agreed  upon 
between  the  inhabitants  of  Taunton,  and  Henry  Leonard 
of  Braintree  : 

'  Imprimis.  It  was  agreed  and  granted  by  the  town  to 
the  said  Henry  Leonard,  and  James  Leonard  his  brother, 
and  Ralph  Russell,  free  consent  to  come  hither,  and  join 
with  certain  of  our  inhabitants  to  set  up  a  bloomery  work 
on  the  Two  Mile  River. 

'  It  was  agreed  and  granted  by  a  free  vote  of  the  town, 
that  such  particular  inhabitants  as  shall  concur  together, 
with  the  said  persons  in  this  design,  shall  have  free  liberty 
from  the  town  so  to  do,  to  build  and  set  up  this  work,  and 
that  they  shall  have  the  woods  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Two  Mile  River,  wheresoever  it  is  common  on  that  side  of 
the  river,  to  cut  for  their  cordwood  to  make  coals,  and 
also  to  dig  and  take  moine  or  oare,  at  Two  Mile  Meadow, 
or  in  any  of  the  commons  appertaining  to  the  town,  where 
it  is  not  now  in  propriety.' 

In  pursuance  of  this  agreement  the  '  Bloomery'  was 
erected,  and  the  iron  manufacture  extensively  and  pros- 
perously pursued. 

Henry  Leonard,  tempted  by  the  advantages,  (particu- 
larly of  ore,)  which  New  Jersey  afforded,  removed  there, 
and  erected  the  first  iron-works  in  that  province. 

Ralph  Russell  removed  to  Dartmouth,  and  was  the  pro- 
genitor of  a  numerous  and  respectable  posterity. 

James  Leonard  remained  at  Taunton.  His  eldest  son, 
Thomas,  afterwards  a  distinguished  person  under  both  the 
governments  of  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts,  came  a  lad 
with  his  father  from  Wales. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  269 

In  1659,  Henry  Andrews  and  John  Macomber  were  per- 
mitted to  erect  a  saw  mill  on  Mill  River,  '  if  it  be  not  found 
hurtful  to  the  grist-mill.' 

ORDERS  AND  AGREEMENTS  CONCERNING  DIVIDING  OF  LANDS. 

'March  11,  1642.  Whereas,  there  was  a  rate  of  two 
shillings  for  an  acre  laid  upon  the  inhabitants'  home 
grounds,  for  the  payment  of  the  purchase  of  the  lands  of 
the  township  to  the  Indians,  and  other  persons  being 
received  since  for  inhabitants,  were  not  rated  thereunto. 

*  It  is  therefore  ordered  that  the  said  latter  inhabitants, 
or  others  that  shall  hereafter  be  received  for  inhabitants, 
to  have  right  in  future  divisions,  shall  pay  for  their  home 
lots  that  shall  be  granted  unto  them  by  the  town,  the  said 
proportion  of  two  shillings  for  an  acre,  and  the  said  money 
to  be  kept  for  a  public  stock,  for  such  uses  as  shall  be 
requisite  for  the  use  of  the  plantation.' 

'  November  28,  1653.  1.  In  town-meeting,  a  general 
division  of  the  lands  was  voted  amongst  such  as  had  the 
right. 

'  2.  It  was  agreed  that  the  rule  for  dividing  of  lands 
by,  shall  be  by  lots,  heads,  and  estates,  according  to  the 
last  rate  made,  which  was  a  rate  of  £S  made  for  the  pub- 
lic charges  for  the  country,  charged  upon  every  inhabit- 
ant by  the  raters  that  made  that  rate,  and  in  the  division 
three  acres  to  be  laid  to  each  head,  and  three  acres  to 
every  shilling  that  is  charged  in  that  rate,  contained  in 
this  order,  and  three  acres  to  the  house  or  home  lot,  and 
those  that  are  single  men  to  be  looked  upon,  as  to  have 
two  heads.' 

'  February  20, 1654.  '  This  said  agreement  was  changed 
to  be  the  one  half  of  the  proportion  in  the  division. 

'  It  was  voted  that  such  as  possess  the  lands  of  those 
that  removed  from  the  plantation,   or  have  been  received 


270 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 


since,  shall  have  their  divisions,  that  doth  belong  to  their 
lots  only,  their  persons  and  estates  being  departed  hence, 
which  said  division  to  a  six  acre  lot,  appertains  two  acres 
and  a  half,  and  twentysix  pole.' 

'  The  names  of  those  inhabitants  within  the  township 
of  Taunton,  who  are  to  have  their  division  of  land  now 
agreed  upon,  December  28,  1G59,  whose  proportion  is  to  be 
according  to  the  rate  here  following,  together  with  the 
quantity  of  land,  lots,  and  heads,  at  two  acres  to  the  head, 
two  acres  to  the  shilling,  and  two  acres  to  the  lot. 


The  rate. 

The  lots  are 

ilike. 

Msris  Winnifred  Gilbert, 

.     £1  10    6 

3  heads 

James  Walker, 

15    7 

8 

u 

96  acres 

John  Tisdill, 

1  10  10 

9 

c< 

82    " 

Richard  Burt, 

18    2 

4 

u 

46    « 

James  Burt,     .... 

12     0 

6 

C( 

38    « 

Francis  Smith, 

17    4 

6 

cc 

61     " 

Msris  Jane  Gilbert, 

9     0 

7 

« 

55    « 

Francis  Street,    .        .        . 

6     7 

5 

« 

25    « 

John  Briant,     .... 

6    9 

2 

il 

19    « 

Christopher  Thrasher, 

5    2 

7 

<c 

26    " 

John  Hathaway, 

10     7 

7 

cc 

37    " 

Jonah  Austin,  senior. 

19  11 

2 

" 

46    « 

William  Parker, 

15     3 

2 

« 

36    " 

James  Phillips    . 

13    4 

2 

« 

31     " 

Peter  Pitts,     .... 

1  00     7 

6 

ft 

55     " 

William  Haylston, 

5    4 

2 

« 

17     « 

Aaron  Knap, 

7    9 

2 

« 

32    " 

Thomas  Lincoln,  junior, 

14    8 

6 

c( 

43    « 

Edward  Bobbit, 

10    8 

4 

« 

29    « 

James  Wiatt, 

1     8  11 

2 

CC 

64    « 

George  Macey, 

18     3 

7 

(C 

52    « 

William  Withrell, 

7  10 

5 

a 

28    « 

William  Harvey,     . 

14  00 

0 

ii 

44    " 

Thomas  Lincoln,  senior. 

2  00    3 

6 

" 

94    " 

Captain  Poole, 

12    3 

8 

" 

62    « 

John  Macomber, 

7  00 

4 

" 

24     " 

Edward  Rew, 

7  00 

2 

« 

20    « 

Joseph  Wilbore, 

14     7 

3 

" 

37    u 

Samuel  Howard, 

4    4 

0 

<t 

9     " 

Thomas  Caswell, 

11     3 

9 

" 

42'    " 

5    7 

2  heads. 

17  i 

icres 

12    6 

3 

c< 

33 

9    8 

7 

c< 

33 

12  00 

2 

« 

30 

18    3 

3 

« 

44 

1     8  10 

8 

" 

76 

13    1 

8 

(C 

44 

12     1 

5 

cc 

36 

19     4 

6 

«c 

53 

1  15    3 

7 

<c 

86 

1  13    6 

10 

« 

91 

4    3 

3 

« 

16 

3  10 

0 

c( 

10 

5  00 

10 

« 

32 

18  00 

10 

« 

58 

2  00 

0 

« 

6 

MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  271 

t 

Widow  Woody, 

Shadrach  Wilbore, 

Robert  Grossman,     . 

John  Cobb,  .... 

Henry  Andrews, 

John  Deane,         .... 

Walter  Deane, 

Hezekiah  Hoar, 

Anthony  Slocum,     . 

George  Hall, 

Richard  Williams, 

Thomas  Jones, 

Robert  Thorntun, 

William  Shepard, 

James  Leonard, 

Nathaniel  Woodward, 

Timothy  Holloway, 

January,  1659.  It  was  voted  that  orphans  and  father- 
less children  should  have  their  proportionable  parts  in 
divisions. 

December  9,  16G2.  The  vote  requiring  the  divisions 
to  be  made  by  heads  and  estates  was  rescinded. 

In  1G63,  the  town  was  enlarged  and  bounded  on  the 
south.  The  order  of  the  General  Court  was  '  that  the 
path  which  goeth  from  Namasket  to  Assonet  be  the  south- 
east bounds,  and  so  by  a  line  from  thence  to  Baiting  Brook, 
and  from  said  brook  a  north  line  till  it  meets  with  their 
opposite  line  called  long  square,  provided  it  comes  not 
within  two  miles  of  Tittiquet.' 

In  this  year,  sachem  Philip  made  his  confirmatory  deed 
already  mentioned,  referring  to  the  purchase  from  his 
father  Ousamequin  in  the  year  1638,  '  when  Capt.  Poole 
and  Mr  John  Gilbert  sat  down  there.' 

June  29,  1666.  It  was  voted  that  there  should  be  a 
division  of  certain  lands  on  Three  Mile  River  '  to  those 
that  are  purchasers,  that  are  inhabiting  now  in  the  town.' 

July  21,  1666.  The  division  was  made.  'Fatherless 
children  and  purchasers  not  resident,'  were  to  be  after- 
wards considered. 


272 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 


The   following   names  not 
appear. 

Thomas  Gilbert, 
Thomas  Leonard, 
John  Turner, 
Widow  Wiat, 
John  Hall, 
Samuel  Hall, 
Nicholas  White, 
Israel  Dean, 
John  Parker, 
Giles  Gilbert, 
George  Watson, 
Richard  Stasie, 

The  following  names  on  the  catalogue  of  1659,  are  not 
on  the  above. 


on  the  catalogue  of  1659 

Mr  George  Shove, 
John  Austin,  junior, 
John  Smith,  senior, 
John  Richmond, 
Samuel  WiUiams, 
Samuel  Smith, 
John  Tisdill,  junior, 
Jonathan  Briggs, 
Samuel  Holloway, 
William  Evans, 
Nathaniel  Williams. 


Mrs  Winnifred  Gilbert, 
Francis  Street, 
William  Haylstone, 
James  Wiat, 
William  Withrell, 
Captain  Poole, 
Edward  Rew, 


Samuel  Howard, 
Widow  Woody, 
Anthony  Slocum, 
William  Shepard, 
Nathaniel  Woodward, 
Timothy  Holloway. 


Taunton  now  included  the  present  town  Berkley  and 
Raynham. 

In  Philip's  confirmatory  deed  he  particularly  grants 
'  the  meadows  upon  the  great  river  downward,  so  far  as 
Store-house  Point  so  called,  with  all  the  meadows  of  As- 
sonet  and  Broad  Cove,  with  a  small  tract  of  land  bought 
of  Ishben,  lying  betwixt  the  marked  tree  near  the  pond 
and  the  mouth  of  Nistoquahanock  on  the  Three  Mile 
River,  are  enumerated  and  included.'  It  was  the  tempo- 
rary use  of  these  meadows  which  were  then  granted, 
and  not  the  fee,  for  Store-house  Point  was  afterwards  in- 
cluded in  the  grant  of  Swansey,  and  Broad  Cove  in  a  sub- 
sequent grant  to  Taunton  called  the  south  purchase. 
Store-house  Point  was  a  place  where  the  colonists  of 
Plymouth  had  erected  a  trading  house  very  early. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 


273 


In  1668,  June  1,  an  important  addition  was  made  to  the 
town  of  Taunton  called  the  North  Purchase,  now  com- 
prising the  towns  of  Norton,  Easton,  and  Mansfield.  The 
consideration  paid  the  Court  was  £100.  The  grant  was 
in  the  following  words  : 

'  Whereas  the  General  Court  of  New  Plymouth  have 
empowered  Mr  Thomas  Prence,  Major  Josias  Winslow, 
Capt.  Thomas  Southworth,  and  Mr  Constant  Southworth, 
to  take  notice  of  some  purchases  of  land  lately  made  by 
Capt.  Thomas  Willett,  and  to  settle  and  dispose  the  said 
lands  for  the  colony's  use  ; 

'  Know,  therefore,  all  whom  it  may  concern,  that  the 
abovenamed  Mr  Thomas  Prence,  Captain  Thomas  South- 
worth  and  Mr  Constant  Southworth,  and  Major  Josias 
Winslow,  by  virtue  of  power  by  and  from  said  Court  de- 
rived unto  them,  have,  and  by  these  presents  do,  bargain, 
sell,  grant,  aliene,  allot,  confer,  and  make  over  unto 


Richard  Williams, 

Shadrach  Wilbore, 

Walter  Dean, 

Thomas  Caswell, 

Mr 

George  Macy, 

John  Macomber, 

George 

James  Walker, 

John  Smith, 

Shove. 

Joseph  Wilbore, 

Edward  Rue, 

William  Harvey, 

John  Parker, 

Thomas  Leonard,    , 

Samuel  Paul, 

John  Turner, 

Thomas  Linkoln,  senior. 

Henry  Andrews, 

Thomas  Harvey,  the  elder. 

John  Cobb, 

Nathaniel  Thayer, 

George  Hall, 

Thomas  Linkoln,  junior. 

John  Hall, 

Peter  Pitts, 

Samuel  Hall, 

Jonah  Austin,  senior, 

James  Leonard,  senior, 

John  Richmond, 

Nathaniel  Williams, 

Samuel  Williams, 

Thomas  Williams, 

Christopher  Thresher, 

Nicholas  White,  senior, 

Mistress  Jane  Gilbert, 

Nicholas  White,  junior. 

George  Watson, 

Hczekiah  Hoar, 

Samuel  Smith, 

Alice  Dean, 

James  Burt, 

Robert  Crossman, 

Richard  Burt, 

PART    II. 


35 


274  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

John  Tisdall,  senior,  Jonathan  Briggs, 

John  TisdalJ,  junior,  Increase  Robinson, 

James  Phillips,  John  Bryant, 

Edward  Bobbitt,  Thomas  Harvey,  junior, 
John  Hatheway, 

Proprietors  of  the  town  of  Taunton  and  to  their  heirs 
forever,  a  certain  tract  of  land  lying  and  being  on  the 
northerly  side  of  Taunton  aforesaid,  and  is  bounded  as 
followeth,  viz.  beginning  at  the  northwest  at  the  bounds 
of  the  lands  formerly  sold  by  us  unto  the  town  of  Reho- 
both,  and  to  be  bounded  on  the  northerly  side  by  the 
Massachusetts  line,  until  it  comes  to  bear  with  the  western 
bounds  of  the  town  of  Bridgewater,  and  so  from  the  said 
Massachusetts  line  by  a  south  line  home  unto  the  bounds 
of  Taunton,  and  thence  by  a  westerly  line  until  it  meets 
with  the  bounds  of  Rehoboth  abovesaid,  and  so  to  follow 
the  said  bounds  of  Rehoboth  until  it  comes  to  the  bounds 
first  mentioned  upon  the  Massachusetts  line.  All  the 
lands  within  this  compass  excepting  only  a  small  parcel 
granted  unto  John  Bundey,  and  also  a  grant  made  unto 
Thomas  Briggs  the  son  of  Clement  Briggs,  together  with 
the  meadows,  woods,  waters,  and  all  the  benefits,  privi- 
leges, emoluments,  profits,  and  immunities  thereunto  apper- 
taining and  belonging.  To  have  and  to  hold  to  them  and 
to  their  heirs  forever.'  Then  follows  the  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  payment  of  £100,  as  the  consideration  and 
the  conclusion  in  the  usual  form.* 

*  Mr  Shove,  whose  name  appears  in  the  margin,  was  subsequently  inserted 
in  1682. 

Clement  Briggs,  whose  name  appears  in  the  above  instrument,  was  a  felt- 
maker,  who  arrived  at  Plymouth  in  the  Fortune  in  1621,  and  removed  to  Wey- 
mouth. These  grants  were  made  probably  to  facilitate  his  business,  especially 
the  taking  of  beaver.  John  Bundey  afterwards  removed  to  Point  Judith,  Narra- 
gansett. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  275 

No  general  settlement  was  made  on  these  lands  until 
many  years  subsequent  to  the  execution  of  the  grant. 

In  1671,  James  Walker  and  John  Richmond  were 
authorized  by  the  Court  to  purchase  lands  of  the  Indians 
for  Taunton,  from  the  Three  Mile  river,  (Nistoquahanock, 
or  Nenesteco  neck,)  to  a  place  called  the  Store   House.' 

In  1672,  William  Brenton  and  his  associates  purchased 
this  tract  of  Sachem  Philip  for  £143,  three  miles  by  four 
miles,  made  four  miles  square  in  1673.  This  was  the 
Taunton  South  Purchase,  now  the  town  of  Dighton. 

These  lands  had  been  previously  granted  by  the  Court, 
June  6th,  1668,  to  those  to  whom  the  North  Purchase  was 
granted,  with  the  exception  of  John  Cobb,  George  Hall, 
Alice  Dean,  John  Parker,  Samuel  Paul,  Jonah  Austin, 
senior,  Mistress  Jane  Gilbert,  and  John  Bryant,  and  with 
the  addition  of 

William  Brenton,  esquire,  Malachi  Holloway, 

Giles  Gilbert,  Esther  Golup, 

John  Deane,  Joseph  Hall, 

Aaron  Knapp,  Mary  Street, 

Thomas  Gilbert,  Isaac  Deane, 

John  Poole,  Ezra  Deane, 

William  Wetherell,  James  Walker,  junior, 

Henry  Andrews,  junior,  Peter  Walker, 

Samuel  Pitts,  Israel  Thresher, 

Robert  Thornton,  Samuel  Macy, 

Thomas  Deane,  Jared  Talbot, 

Joseph  Williams,  James  Leonard,  junior, 

James  Tisdill,  John  Lincoln, 

Israel  Deane,  Richard  Stephens, 

Francis  Smith,  W^illiam  Wetherell,  junior, 

Jonah  Austin,  junior,  Richard  Brigg;s, 

Richard  Stacy,  John  Smith,  junior, 

John  Hodges,  Thomas  Amsbury, 

William  Paul,  John  Macomber, 

Samuel  Holloway,  Joseph  AVillis, 

In  this  manner  was  the  ancient  town  of  Taunton  formed 
by  several  successive  purchasers  and   grants,  and  com- 


276  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

prised  until  the  dissolution  of  the  colonial  government 
of  Plymouth,  the  several  towns  which  are  now  called 
Taunton,  Norton,  Dighton,  Raynham,  Berkley,  Easton  and 
Mansfield. 

January  10th,  1669.  It  was  voted  that  there  should  be 
distinct  lists  of  such  as  had  rights  in  divisions  of  lands. 
This  list  was  to  be  called  over  in  town-meetings  until 
sixteen  responded,  who  with  the  clerk  were  to  form  a 
quorum. 

December  18,  1671.  The  following  valuation  of  lands 
and  cattle  was  ordered  in  town-meeting  as  a  rule  for  the 
raters.  Improved  land  155.  per  acre  rateable  estate; 
meadow  and  pasture  lOs.  ;  dormant  land  Is.j  an  ox  £3; 
a  cow  £2  5s. ;  three  year  old  £2  5s. ;  two  year  old  £1 
10s.;  yearling  15s.;  a  sheep  3s.;  three  year  old  horse 
£2  ;  two  year  old  horse  £1. 

The  rates  were  payable  in  money  or  country  pay,  which 
was  wheat,  Indian  corn,  barley,  rye,  butter,  and  iron. 

A  short  time  before  the  commencement  of  the  Indian 
war  in  1675,  there  appears  to  have  been  inserted  on  the 
town-book  a  correct  list  of  the  proprietors  of  the  ancient 
Taunton  as  they  then  stood,  '  unto  whom  the  town  hath 
already  granted  or  divided  lands  by  virtue  of  their  enjoy- 
ing either  purchase  lots  or  purchase  rights  to  divisions  of 
lands.'  The  catalogue  was  preceded  by  the  following 
declaration  : 

'Whereas,  by  the  providence  of  God  in  the  year  1638 
and  the  year  1639,  it  pleased  God  to  bring  the  most  part 
of  the  first  purchasers  of  Taunton  over  the  great  ocean 
into  this  wilderness  from  our  dear  and  native  land,  and 
after  some  small  time  here  we  found  this  place,  (called  by 
the  natives  of  the  land  Cohannet,)  in  the  colony  of  New 
Plymouth,  and  of  the  Court  of  the  said  colony  we  obtained 
grants  of  tracts  of  land  for  a  plantation  or  township,  as 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  277 

by  the  records  of  the  said  Court  it  may  and  doth  appear, 
and  then  we  also  made  purchase  and  bought  the  said 
tracts  of  land  for  our  money  of  the  right  proprietors  and 
owners,  the  Indians'  sachem  or  prince  of  that  part  of  the 
country,  as  by  deed  under  their  hands  it  may  appear,  and 
in  honor  and  love  to  our  dear  and  native  country,  we 
called  this  place  Taunton,  and  owning  it  a  great  mercy 
of  God  to  bring  us  to  this  place,  and  settling  of  us  on 
lands  of  our  own,  bought  with  our  money  in  peace,  in  the 
midst  of  the  heathen,  for  a  possession  for  ourselves,  and 
for  our  posterity  after  us,  do  mutually  agree  and  fully 
determine,  as  an  undeniable  order  of  this  town,  without 
any  evasion  whatsoever,  that  all  lands  that  is  or  shall  be 
granted  to  any  person  or  persons,  whether  under  the  denomi- 
nation of  a  purchaser  or  free  inhabitant  orderly  received 
into  this  town,  shall  be  to  the  grantees  and  their  heirs  and 
assigns  forever,  a  good  perfect  estate  of  inheritance  in 
fee  simple,  and  that  all  titles  of  our  lands  within  this 
township,  so  to  stand  in  the  tenure  to  the  grantees,  and 
so  to  descend  to  their  survivors  as  aforesaid.' 

Richard  Williams  on  his  own  rights,  and  on  that  which 
was  Henry  Uxley's,  and  on  that  which  was  Anthony  Slo- 
cum's,  and  that  which  was  John  Gingil's. 

John  Hall  and  Samuel  Hall  on  their  iwo  rights,  which 
were  Joseph  Wilson's  and  Benjamin  Wilson's. 

Joseph  Hall  on  the  rights  that  was  his  father's, 

Captain  William  Poole's  heirs  on  his  rights. 

Lieutenant  George  Macey  on  his  own  rights  and  on  that 
which  was  Mr  Boshop's. 

William  Harvey  on  his  own  rights. 

Edward  Rew  on  the  rights  that  was  William  Coys. 

Hezekiah  Hoar  on  his  own  rights. 

Walter  Deane  on  his  own  rights. 

John  Deane  on  his  father's  rights. 


278  MEMOIR   OF   PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Increase  Robinson  on  the  rights  that  was  Thomas 
Cook'€. 

John  Cobb  on  the  rights  that  was  John  Smith's. 

Mr  Thomas  Farwell's  heirs  on  his  rights. 

Shadrach  Wilbore  on  the  rights  that  was  Edward  Case's. 

Thomas  Caswell  on  the  rights  that  was  John  Kingslow's. 

James  Leonard,  junior,  on  the  rights  that  was  Richard 
Paul's 

Joseph  Wilbore  on  the  rights  that  was  Richard  Smith's. 

John  Smith,  senior,  on  half  the  rights  that  was  Mr  John 
Gilbert's. 

James  Phillips  on  the  rights  that  was  his  father's. 

John  Richmond  on  the  rights  that  was  his  father's,  and 
on  the  rights  that  was  Mr  Francis  Doubtyes  (Doughty.) 

Jonah  Austin,  senior,  on  the  right  that  was  William 
Holloway's. 

Jonah  Austin,  junior,  on  the  half  purchase  rights  of  the 
Widow  Randil's. 

William  Withrell  on  his  own  rights,  and  that  which  was 
Mr  Dunn's. 

John  Briant  on  the  rights  which  was  his  father's,  and 
that  which  was  William  Scadding's. 

Mary  Streete  on  the  rights  that  was  her  father's. 

Joseph  Willis  on  the  rights  that  was  Hugh  Rossiter's. 

Eleazer  Gilbert  on  the  rights  of  John  Gilbert. 

Thomas  Gilbert  on  the  rights  that  was  his  father's. 

Malachi  Holloway  on  the  rights  that  was  Richard  Hart's. 

Francis  Smith  on  the  rights  that  was  Oliver  Purchase's. 

Samuel  Smith  on  the  rights  that  was  Jacob  Wilson's. 

James  Burt  on  his  own  rights. 

Richard  Burt  on  the  rights  that  was  his  father's. 

James  Tisdill  on  the  rights  that  was  David  Greenman's. 

John  Tisdill,  senior,  on  his  own  rights. 

John  Tisdill,  junior,  on  the  rights  that  was  Mr  Drake's. 


MEMOIR  OF   PLYMOUTH  COLOJNY.  279 

James  Walker,  senior,  on  his  own  rights,  and  on  that 
which  was  Mr  John  Browne's,  and  on  the  rights  that  was 
John  Luther's. 

Mr  John  Poole  on  the  rights  that  was  Miss  Elizabeth 
Poole's. 

James  Wiat's  heirs  on  his  rights. 

Thomas  Harvey,  junior,  on  his  father's  rights. 

To  John  Strong's  rights  we  find  several  claimers. 

Christopher  Thrasher  on  his  own  rights. 

William  Shepard's  heirs  on  his  rights. 

John  Hathway  on  the  rights  that  was  his  father's. 

Peter  Pitts  on  the  rights  that  was  Richard  Stasie's,  and 
on  the  rights  that  was  William  Parker's. 

Thomas  Coggan's  heirs  on  his  rights. 

John  Macomber,  senior,  on  his  own  rights. 

Israel  Deane  on  the  rights  that  was  Clement  Maxfield's. 

Richard  Stasie  on  the  rights  that  was  Edward  Row's. 

John  Hodges  on  the  rights  that  was  his  father's. 

William  Evins  his  heirs  on  his  rights. 

Aaron  Knap's  heirs  on  his  rights. 

Henry  Hodges  on  the  rights  that  was  John  Gollup's. 

Richard  Godfree,  senior,  on  half  the  purchase  rights  that 
was  Thomas  Joan's. 

Thomas  Lincoln,  senior,  on   his  own  rights; 

Thomas  Lincoln,  junior,  on  his  own  rights. 

George  Watson  on  the  rights  that  was  Giles  Gilbert's. 

Giles  Gilbert  on  the  rights  that  was  Joseph  Gilbert's. 

Robert  Grossman  on  his  own  rights. 

Robert  Thorntun  on  his  own  rights. 

John  Turner  on  his  own  rights. 

James  Leonard,  senior,  on  his  own  rights. 

Mr  John  Paine  on  the  rights  that  was  Ralph  Russell's. 

Thomas  Leonard  on  the  rights  that  was  Henry  Leonard's, 
and  on  half  the  purchase  rights  that  was  Thomas  Jones'. 


280  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Edward  Bobbit  on  his  own  rights. 

Samuel  Holloway  on  his  own  rights. 

Jonathan  Briggs  on  the  rights  that  was  Benjamin  Dun- 
ham's. 

Nicholas  White,  senior,  on  the  rights  that  was  David 
Curwithies,  and  on  the  rights  that  was  Giles  Slocum's. 

John  Parker's  heirs  on  his  own  rights. 

Mr  George  Shove  on  his  own  rights. 

William  Haylston  on  his  own  rights. 

Mr  William  Brenton  on  the  rights  that  was  Mr  Nicholas 
Street's. 

'  These  purchasers  or  proprietors  forementioned,  are 
hereby  and  by  virtue  hereof,  entitled  and  interested  only 
into  the  first  purchase  of  the  township  of  Taunton,  and 
not  into  any  later  purchases. 

'  This  list  was  made  and  agreed  upon,  and  concluded 
and  confirmed,  by  us  whose  names  are  underwritten, 
being  the  major  part  of  the  committee  chosen  by  the 
town  for  that  end.     Dated  May  14th,  1675. 

'Richard  Williams, 
'James  Walker, 
'  Walter  Deane, 
'  John  Richmond, 
'  John  Hall, 
'  Joseph  Wilbore, 
'Thomas  Leonard.' 

January  2,  1664.  It  was  voted  '  that  the  fish  should 
have  a  convenient  passage  up  and  down  Mill  river.' 

Shadrach  Wilbore  for  so  long  a  period  town-clerk  of 
Taunton,  received  an  annual  compensation  of  20s. 

In  1665,  the  town  voted  that  the  selectmen  or  a  majority 
of  them  should  call  the  town-meetings  and  manage  them. 
They  were  authorized  '  to  take  care  of  the  poor.' 

No  foreigner  or  stranger  from  abroad  to  be  entertained 
except  by  the  approbation  of  the  selectmen,  under  a  pen- 
alty of  5*. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  281 

Mr  Street  left  the  town  and  removed  to  New  Haven  as 
has  been  previously  mentioned. 

The  Rev.  George  Shove,  a  native  of  Dorchester,  was 
the  successor  of  Mr  Street ;  he  was  ordained  the  third 
pastor  of  Taunton,  November  19,  1665.  Mr  Shove  died 
in  April,  1687  ;  he  will  be  noticed  hereafter.* 

*  JVote  respecting  the  early  settlers  of  Taunton.  Of  Elizabeth  Poole,  Mr 
Hooke,  Mr  Street,  Captain  William  Poole,  George  Macy,  John  Strong,  and 
Edward  Case,  some  information  has  already  been  given.  John  Strong  came 
from  Hingham,  and  removed  to  North  Hampton,  and  is  believed  to  have  been 
the  ancestor  of  the  respectable  family  on  Connecticut  river  which  now  bear  the 
name. 

Mr  John  Gilbert,  senior,  Henry  Andrews,  John  Dean,  and  Walter  Dean,  were 
(with  those  already  mentioned)  the  most  active  in  promoting  the  settlement. 

Mr  John  Gilbert,  as  is  supposed,  came  from  Devonshire  at  an  age  somewhat 
advanced,  and  settled  at  Dorchester  with  his  family.  He  was  dead  previous  to 
1654,  but  his  widow  Mrs  Winnifred  Gilbert,  was  then  living.  He  with  Henry 
Andrews  were  the  two  first  deputies  or  representatives  from  Taunton  to  the 
General  Court  at  Plymouth  in  1639. 

His  sons,  Thomas  and  John,  came  with  him  to  Taunton,  and  were  in  the  first 
catalogue  of  proprietors. 

Of  Thomas  Gilbert,  Governor  Winthrop  gravely  records  a  venial  ofTence,  in 
his  history  of  New  England. 

'8th  mo.  Aug.  18,  1636.  Thomas  Gilbert  brought  before  us  ;  he  was  drunk 
at  Serjeant  Baulston's,  and  the  constable  being  sent  for  he  struck  him.  He 
was  kept  in  prison  all  night,  and  the  next  day  his  father  John  Gilbert,  and  his 
brother  John  Gilbert  of  Dorchester,  undertook  in  £40  that  John  Gilbert  the 
younger  would  appear  at  Court  to  answer  for  him,  and  perform  the  order  of 
Court,  &c.  The  reason  was  that  he  was  to  go  to  England  presently,  and  not 
known  to  have  been  in  any  way  disordered,  and  was  his  father's  oldest  son,  who 
was  a  grave,  honest  gentleman,  &c.  They  did  undertake,  also,  that  he  should 
acknowledge  his  fault  openly  to  the  constable,  «S:c.' 

This  offence  thus  gravely  recorded  by  the  governor,  must  have  been  acci- 
dental, for  the  people  of  Taunton,  as  rigid  in  their  notions  and  practices  as  any 
others,  elected  him  a  deputy  to  the  General  Court  of  Plymouth  in  1651. 

In  1653,  he  went  to  England  and  never  returned,  but  died  there  in  1676. 
His  wife  and  children  remained  at  Taunton.  He  married  Jane  Rossiter  the 
daughter  of  Hugh  Rossiter,  believed  to  be  the  earliest  marriage  in  Taunton. 
The  name  of  his  eldest  son  was  Thomas,  who  was  the  ancestor  of  Colonel 
Thomas  Gilbert,  a  person  of  some  notoriety  at  Uie  commencement  of  the  revo- 
lution as  a  loyalist,  who  went  to  Nova  Scotia.  His  elde&t  daughter,  Jane, 
PART  II.  36 


282  MEMOIR.  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

SANDWICH. 

Aflei*  the  departure  of  Mr  Leveridge,  who  went  to  Long 
Island,  Richard  Bourne  and  Thomas  Tupper  officiated  in 
the  ministerial  office  at  Sandwich  without  regular  ordina- 
tion, each  having  supporters,  but  as  the  congregation  was 
small,  they  mutually  agreed  that  the  one  who  had  on  each 
Lord's  day  the  most  adherents,  should  officiate. 

married  Samuel  Williams,  the  eldest  son  of  Richard  Williams.  Samuel  Wil- 
liams, Esq.,  their  son,  was  the  great  grandfather  of  the  author  of  this  memoir. 

The  family  of  Gilbert  were  related  to  the  Harts  and  Streets,  and  to  the  Rossi- 
ters  both  of  Old  and  New  England.* 

Henry  Andrews  was  one  of  the  two  first  deputies  to  the  Genei-al  "Court  in 
1639.  He  was  also  a  deputy  in  1643,  1644, 1647,  1649.  He  died  previous  to 
1675.  His  son  Henry  Andrews,  was  killed  by  the  Indians  in  Philip's  war. 
His  posterity  are  numerous. 

John  Deane  was  dead  previous  to  1675  ;  his  posterity  were  numerous.  He 
with  his  brother  Walter  came  from  Taunton  in  Somersetshire,  (England.) 

Thomas  Farwell  was  dead.  His  son  John  went  to  England.  His  widow 
married  the  Rev.  George  Shove. 

Thomas  Coggan  died  in  1653,  leaving  four  daughters.  His  widow  married 
Obadiah  Millerd  of  Springfield. 

John  Parker  died  February  14th,  1667.  He  came  from  Hingham  near 
Boston. 

John  Bryant  was  dead,  leaving  a  son  of  the  same  name. 

John  Crossman  was  dead,  leaving  a  son  by  the  name  of  Robert. 

Richard  Paull,  Richard  Burt,  George  Hall,  William  Philips,  were  dead, 
leaving  children.  Francis  Street  left  one  daughter,  Mary.  Edward  Rew  lefl 
no  children  ;  his  widow  married  James  Walker. 

Mr  John  Browne  had  removed  to  Wannamoiset ;  Hugh  Rossiter  to  Con- 
necticut; Francis  Doughty  to  Long  Island;  Mr  Bishop  probably  went  to  New 
Haven  ;  Anthony  Slocum  removed  to  Dartmouth,  of  which  town  he  and  Ralph 
Russell  were  early  settlers.  Slocum  in  a  letter  to  his  brother,  Willam  Harvey, 
says,  '  to  the  church  of  Christ  in  Taunton,  and  Mr  Shove  and  yourself  in  par- 
ticular, I  desire  to  be  remembered,  whose  prayers  I  doubt  not  I  and  mine  are 
the  better  for,  and  whose  welfare  I  earnestly  wish  and  pray  for.  Myself,  wife, 
and  sons,  and  daughter  Gilbert  who  hath  four  sons,  remember  our  respects  and 
loves,  and  my  sons  are  all  married,  &c.' 

Richard  Williams,  Walter  Deane,  William  Haylston,  John  Richmond,  John 
Smith,  were  living  in  1675 

*  Information  from  Mr  l;amuel  Davis,  the  antiquary  of  Plymouth. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  283 

Mr  Smith  was  settled  at  last  as  the  regular  pastor.  He 
had  for  a  while  officiated  at  Barnstable,  but  being  disliked 
by  Mr  Hinckley,  a  principal  citizen,  (afterwards  governor 
of  the  colony,  and  his  influence  being  great,)  Mr  Smith 
was  induced  to  remove  first  to  Long  Island,  and  after- 
wards to  New  Jersey,  but  he  finally  returned  and  settled 
at  Sandwich. 

Mr  Bourne  and  Mr  Tupper  then  turned  their  attention 
to  the  Indians,  and  Captain  Tupper,  (for  he  was  a  military 
man,)  gathered  a  church  amongst  those  who  dwelt  north 
and  west  of  Sandwich,  and  erected  a  meetinor-house  at 
Herring  river. 

Bourne  who  was  possessed  both  of  wealth  and  learning, 
commenced  the  work  of  instructing  the  Indians  with  great 
zeal,  and  with  great  success.  He  removed  to  Marshpee. 
In  1658,  he  assisted  at  the  settlement  of  the  boundary  line 
between  the  Marshpee  Indians  and  the  proprietors  of 
Barnstable.  Subsequent  to  the  year  16G0,  he  obtained 
from  Quachatesset  and  others,  a  grant  to  the  Indians 
(called  South  Sea  Indians)  of  the  Marshpee  territory,  a 
tract  lying  on  the  sea,  and  intersected  by  deep  streams, 
and  excellently  well  adapted  to  the  wants  of  the  Indians, 
which  was  incorporated  as  a  plantation  in  1660. 

In  1670,  he  was  ordained  pastor  of  the  Indian  church, 
the  Apostle  Eliot  and  many  others  assisted  at  the  cere- 
mony.    He  died  previous  to  1685.* 

*  He  left  his  large  estate  principally  to  his  son  Shearjashub  Bourne,  Esq. 
This  son  resided  at  Marshpee,  and  was  the  steady  patron  and  director  of  the 
Indians.  He  was  much  in  public  life,  and  was  frequently  a  deputy  both  in  the 
Colonial  Court  at  Plymouth,  and  afterwards  in  the  Provincial  Court  at  Boston. 
He  obtained  a  confirmation  of  the  Marshpee  grant  to  the  Indians  and  their 
children  forever,  and  in  this  confirmation  he  caused  a  singular  provision  to  be 
inserted,  namely,  that  no  conveyance  from  the  Indians  to  the  English  should 
be  valid  without  the  assent  of  all  the  Indians,  even  if  the  General  Court  con- 
sented.    In  consequence  of  this  wise  and  humane  provision,  the  descendants  of 


234  MEMOIR   OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 


BARNSTABLE. 


During  the  period  embraced  in  this  chapter,  the  history 
of  Barnstable  is  almost  devoid  of  interest.  The  Indian 
title  to  the  south  part  of  the  town  was  extinguished  in 
1650,  by  purchase  from  Wianno  and  several  other  sachems. 

The  death  of  Mr  Lothrop  in  November,  1653,  has  been 
already  mentioned. 

In  1644,  the  Rev.  John  Mayo  was  teacher  of  the 
church  in  Barnstable.  He  afterwards  removed  to  East- 
ham  not  long  after  the  commencement  of  that  settlement. 
He  left  Eastham,  and  was  ordained  the  first  pastor  of  the 
Old  North  Church  in  Boston,  in  1649.  His  old  age  was 
spent  at  Yarmouth,  and  there  he  died. 

Thomas  Walley  was  ordained  pastor  in  1663,  and  con- 
tinued in  that  office  to  March  28th,  1678. 

YARMOUTH. 

The  history  of  Yarmouth  is  as  devoid  of  interest  as  that 
of  Barnstable.  Of  all  the  towns  on  Cape  Cod,  it  may  be 
said  that  they  continued  slowly  to  increase  in  population 
and  wealth.  After  the  first  emigrations  but  few  followed, 
and  the  native  born  generally  continued  on  the  soil,  and 

the  Marshpee  Indians  still  hold  the  lands  of  their  fathers,  and  on  this  singular 
and  romantic  spot,  still  continue  to  preserve  a  faint  resemblance  to  their  wild 
and  independent  forefathers. 

The  Honorable  Ezra  Bourne,  the  youngest  son  of  Shearjashuh,  succeeded 
him  in  his  Marshpee  inheritance  and  in  his  offices,  and  was  president  of  the 
Court  of  Sessions,  and  first  justice  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  in  his  county. 
He  continued  to  maintain  the  family  ascendancy  over  the  Indians,  and  died  in 
September,  1764,  at  the  age  of  eightyeight.  His  descendants  were  respectable. 
Three  of  his  grandsons  were  in  Congress  in  1794  ;  one  from  Massachusetts,  one 
from  Rhode  Island,  and  one  from  New  York.  Joseph  Bourne,  one  of  his  sons, 
succeeded  Simon  Popmonet  in  the  mission  to  Marshpee,  in  1729. 

The  descendants  of  Mr  Smith  and  Captain  Tupper  were  also  numerous  and 
respectable. 


MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  285 

passed  their  lives  in  comfort,  if  not  in  affluence.  Their 
vicinity  to  the  ocean  created  a  spirit  of  commercial  enter- 
prise, and  the  fisheries  soon  became  more  productive  than 
their  farms. 

John  Millar  succeeded  Mr  Matthewes  in  the  ministry  in 
1643.  He  had  been  settled  at  Rowley  in  the  county  of 
Essex,  and  had  been  selected  to  go  as  a  preacher  to  Vir- 
ginia, but  he  declined  on  account  of  his  indifferent  health. 
But  little  is  known  of  him.  He  was  in  Yarmouth  as  late 
as  1651. 

MARSHFIELD. 

Governor  Winslow  the  founder  of  Marshfield,  often 
visited  England  ;  he  induced  several  Welsh  gentlemen  of 
respectability  to  emigrate  to  America,  amongst  whom 
came  the  Rev.  Richard  Blinman,  in  1642,  who  was  the 
first  pastor  of  Marshfield.  Some  dissensions  taking 
place,  Mr  Blinman  and  the  Welshmen  removed  to  Cape 
Anne  in  less  than  a  year.  In  1648,  Blinman  went  to  New 
London  in  Connecticut,  of  which  place  he  was  the  pastor 
ten  years.  In  1658,  he  was  at  New  Haven,  and  soon 
after  returned  to  England,  after  having  received  in  1650 
an  invitation  to  settle  at  Newfoundland  ;  he  died  at  the  city 
of  Bristol  in  England. 

It  would  seem  that  Mr  Blinman,  although  in  the  phrase- 
ology of  the  day,  '  a  godly  and  able  man,'  was  not  well 
received  by  the  austere  Puritans  of  Marshfield,  who  com- 
pared him  to  a  '  piece  of  new  cloth  in  an  old  garment.' 
He  was  a  learned  man,  and  wrote  a  treatise  in  defence  of 
infant  baptism. 

The  second  pastor  of  Marshfield  was  Edward  Bulkley, 
the  son  of  the  Rev.  Peter  Bulkley,  the  minister  of  Con- 
cord. His  education  had  been  commenced  in  England, 
but  was  not  perfected  ;  after   the   death  of  his  father,  he 


286  MEMOIR  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

left  Marshfield,  and  was  settled  at  Concord  as  his  successor 
in  IGGO ;  he  was  an  able  and  learned  minister,  but  it  seems 
there  was  some  difficulty  in  raising  his  support,  for  in 
1665,  Captain  Standish  and  John  Alden  were  sent  by  the 
General  Court  to  signify  to  the  people  of  Marshfield,  '  the 
Court's  desire  that  they  would  take  notice  of  their  duty, 
and  contribute  according  to  their  ability,  freely,  to  the 
support  of  the  ministry.'*  Previous  to  the  year  1667, 
Samuel  Arnold  was  settled  as  the  third  pastor  of  Marsh- 
field. 


*  The  Rev.  Peter  Bulkley,  the  minister  of  Concord,  was  the  grandson 
of  Edward  Bulliley,  D.  D.,  an  eminent  clergyman  in  Bedfordshire,  who  is 
mentioned  with  respect  in  the  Book  of  Martyrs;  he  was  one  of  the  most  cele- 
brated divines  and  excellent  men  in  Massachusetts.  In  1635,  the  Court  granted 
to  him  and  thirteen  associates,  the  lands  at  Mustetaquid  ;  he  settled  there  as 
the  first  pastor,  and  called  the  place  Concord.  His  liberality  was  equal  to  his 
wealth,  and  both  were  great.  He  was  a  generous  benefactor  to  the  college  ; 
to  many  of  his  congregation  he  gave  farms  as  the  reward  of  good  husbandry. 
His  attainments  as  a  scholar  were  great ;  his  temper  was  quick,  his  rebukes 
from  the  pulpit  were  tinctured  with  asperity,  and  his  puritanic  austerity  tran- 
scended that  of  the  age,  severe  as  it  was.  He  died  in  1658,  at  the  age  of 
seventyseven. 

The  family  of  Bulkley  continued  eminent  for  a  long  period.  Peter  Bulkley, 
the  brother  of  the  minister  of  Marshfield,  was  Speaker  of  the  House,  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, in  1676.  Gershom  Bulkley,  another  brother,  went  to  Connecticut ; 
he  was  an  eminent  chemist ;  his  son  John,  the  minister  of  Colchester,  in  Con- 
necticut, was  the  most  brilliant  genius  of  the  day;  he  died  in  June,  173L 


END    OP    THE     SECOND     PART. 


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